


Outside the World

by AnnaOkegom



Series: Elementals [2]
Category: Original Work, Steven Universe OCs RP
Genre: Crying, Disturbing Themes, Gen, Hybrids, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Self-Harm, like.... i literally don't know how to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:34:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22377289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaOkegom/pseuds/AnnaOkegom
Summary: The only life Sean McCarthy had ever known was his room, his caretakers, his father (sometimes) and his deceased mother.But this is all only the tip of the iceberg, and as Sean grows, he realizes that there is much more to the place he calls "home", the other people around him, his family, and mainly, himself.
Series: Elementals [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1613929
Comments: 8
Kudos: 4





	1. 8 years old

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AbsoluteSpoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbsoluteSpoon/gifts).



> Okay so I decided to release these chapters gradually. Enjoy!!  
> (this is writing r e a l l y badly, at least on the first chapters, and I apologize a lot for that--)

It was a moment of vulnerability, a rare breach! Without waiting any more, Sean ran towards the door, slamming his hand against the detector by its side and then grabbing the doorknob to pull it; but even if it was open, he was just a little boy and didn't possess enough strength to drag a metal door just by himself. Yet, he promised himself unconsciously in his mind.

A warm, gentle hand touched his shoulder, and looking up, he was met with Marine's kind smile and look of pity.

"Come on now, Sean," she said, her voice ever so soft, as she turned him away from the door and leading him more into the room.

She took him to the bed, which was connected to the wall, with its comfy part surrounded by a white "wrapping". Marine sat down, and Sean sat by her side to lie down soon after, his head on her lap. In that position, he could see everything in his room: the many cupboards, all full of spare clothes and reserves of food and water, and also the small pool of water in the corner of the room, designed for him to take his baths (if Gems didn't need to take baths, why did he need to?), along with a comb, a towel and other hygiene-related stuff by its side. There were also a few stacks of books he had never read in some places in the room.

He turned around, his face now towards Marine, and closed his eyes, just appreciating as she stroked his hair gently. Sleeping had never been a problem to him with everything she did to make it even better. In just a few minutes, the boy was sound asleep on Marine's lap, and she still continued to caress him. Later, long after she had lost track of time, the door opened from outside, and Olive came in. 

"Hey, Marine, you won't believe--" she started, on her naturally loud tone, before Marine put a finger to her own mouth.

"Shhh... Sean is sleeping." Marine whispered, pointing to the boy.

Olive frowned. Even after 8 years of dealing with Sean, she still hadn't gotten used to human necessities, to the point where sometimes Marine even had to intervene on her way of treating him. Her duty was to make sure he was developing well, right? Olive sat down on the bed next to her.

"So he coincidentally fell 'asleep' just as I was about to come and get him for training... I prepared everything just for him, and now I'll have to wait more." she complained with a sigh.

"Well, it's not his fault... he needs to rest to maintain good health. All humans need to... he may have a gem, but he is also part human, Olive." Marine replied, glancing at Sean for a second. "We can't treat him as something he is not... he isn't a Gem. He isn't Azurite."

"Yeah, guess you're right." Olive ruffled Sean's hair and chuckled. "Poor boy, he's probably sick of all this. I'll try to understand him more."

"I'd say he's more confused. He doesn't quite get many things that happen, related to his mother... and I'm not the best person to actually explain it to him. Neither of us are."

They hadn't actually thought that through when they assigned both of them as Sean's caretakers. Or they simply didn't care, probably. 

"But Sean is happy and that's all that matters." Marine completed, receiving a nod of agreement from Olive.

Just then, the door was pushed open from outside, and another Gem came inside the room. Her primary color scheme was a yellowish orange color, and Marine recognized her on the spot.

"It's you." she said to the other Pearl. By instinct, she almost stood up, but was able to hold herself down remembering that Sean's head was on her lap.

The orange Pearl waited a few seconds before grimacing in disapproval, as Olive glanced at both of them, wondering what was happening, and begging Marine to explain who was that other Pearl with her looks; Marine was way too focused on her own thoughts to even realize. Then the newly-arrived Pearl coughed into her fist before speaking with a loud and smug tone:

"I do not think that 'it's you' is an appropriate thing for you to say to me, considering the fact that I'm of a much higher rank than you, and knowing who I serve, I could even--"

"Whatever, Pearly! Who are you? Why are you even here, anyway?" Olive interrupted, and Marine thanked her bluntness for the probably first and last time in her life.

"Commander Tourmaline requested me to come here. She wants you to bring the half-human half-Gem Sean to her presence." the Pearl replied, purposely evading the questions, but getting to the point. That was just how she was; even if she had to give what they wanted, she would not give them the direct satisfaction.

"Wait, Commander Tourmaline?" Olive yelled, turning back to Marine, this time with that familiar "tell me what's going on right now or I'll punch you" expression.

"This is Commander Tourmaline's Pearl, Sol," Marine breathed out, sweat dropping, and turned back to Sol, who now had a grin on her face. "But what does the Commander want with Sean?"

"Good to see you are still sane enough to remember who I am." Sol replied, dragging out everything to leave the two of them curious. "And I don't know what my Commander wants with him, but she told me it was important, so if I were you, I'd bring the boy there as soon as possible. I'm simply doing what she asked me to do."

Marine glanced down at Sean, who was still asleep, even drooling now, and looked back up.

"We can't. Not now. Sean is sleeping." she announced, and seeing the confusion on Sol's face, added, "It's something humans need to do to replenish energies. He won't be able to respond to anything in this state, and waking him up can damage his health." Alright, maybe she was exaggerating, but she never really liked to wake Sean up.

"Alright... I hope you're telling me the truth. And when will he be done with his 'sleeping' duties?"

"In a few hours. It's impossible to calculate the exact time."

"In this case..." Sol turned around and placed her hand on the detector, using the other one to pull the door. She then turned her head to them. "As soon as he is done, come to meet Commander Tourmaline right away. My Commander doesn't like waiting."

With that, she left, and Marine let out a sigh she didn't know she had been holding for so long. Olive got up and walked in front of her, grabbing her by the shoulders and pulling her head up to stare at her.

"Okay, what just happened? Why would Commander Tourmaline want to see Sean?" she blurted out, bewildered, and started roaming around the room, further worrying Marine.

"I... don't know. But they do want to study Sean, don't they? I mean, he's unique..." Marine eyes Olive, who was still stomping in circles around the room. "O-Olive, please, stop, calm down... you're going to break the floor just like last time..."

Olive grunted and stood still, and then came to sit down on the bed again.

"Okay. Okay, I'm calmer now." she said, as she clenched her trembling hands into fists. "But when we go to take Sean to see her, I want to be there to see everything."

Marine just nodded.

She wanted to be there and protect Sean, too.

***

"Marine?"

She looked down, where the voice had come from. Sean was now laying on her lap with his entire back down, staring directly at her with a neutral expression. She smiled at him, and he returned it with the beam he wore all the time.

"Good morning, Sean," she said.

"I fell asleep on your legs!" he remarked laughing, and hugged her waist.

"Sure you did," Marine bit her lip and slowly pushed him away from her. With her hands under his arms, she lifted him in front of her and stood up.

Marine carried him all the way to the pool of water on the corner of the room and placed him back on the ground, before kneeling and starting to take his clothes off.

"Aww, man, I'll have to take a bath?" Sean pouted, his voice muffled by the shirt covering his mouth.

"I know you don't really enjoy it, but we have to get you as presentable as possible. You'll have an important event today, Sean." she explained, folding his shirt, and then taking out his pants.

"Oh, really, I do? What is it, is it something really cool?"

"It's... we don't know yet. You're going to meet Commander Tourmaline and we'll see what she wants."

Helping Sean get inside the water now, she knelt closer to where he was and started pouring the water all over his body, even his hair, which triggered a small yelp of surprise out of him. By now she already knew that Sean wasn't the biggest fan of cold water, so she made sure that his bath water was always heated to be warm.

"Meeting the Commander herself? That's amazing! When can we go, when?" he asked eagerly, hitting the water with his small, chubby hands and splashing it everywhere around.

"Well, first we need to get you ready." Marine took the soap bar and started scrubbing it against his back first.

"I want a bubble bomb," Sean said out of the blue soon after, looking at the bombs with his eyes shining. 

Marine chuckled.

"I'm sorry, Sean, we can't this time. This is supposed to be a very quick bath... the Commander has already been waiting for too long."

The boy furrowed a brow, but shrugged and continued letting himself be scrubbed by the soap. The rest of the bath was pretty much silent and as soon as they were done, Marine helped Sean get out and dried him with a towel before dressing him in brand new clothes (gray like always, like the other Elementals) and brushing his hair. Like they always did after he woke up, Sean ate a snack (he usually ate a full meal, and as much as Marine felt guilty, she wanted to get all that over with already), tended to his other physiological needs and got his teeth brushed by Marine.

Just as they were about to turn to the door and leave, it was slammed against the wall from the other side, and a hurried and worried Olive burst into the room.

"Olive!" Sean exclaimed, running towards her and jumping for a hug.

"Oh, Sean, there you are! I'm so glad I got here in time before you left!" Olive said, as she pressed him against her chest in an almost literal bone-crushing hug.

"O... Olive?! Can you explain what was this now?!" Marine screamed, grabbing the sides of her head in shock and fear.

"Oh... sorry, Marine. I got caught up in my duties, and I didn't want to miss taking Sean to see the Commander when he woke up. So just I was training some soldiers, I suddenly remembered it and immediately came here to catch you on time." the Agate explained with an awkward smile, finally putting Sean down.

"You left in the middle of training with no explanation?"

"Kind of... yeah, I did. But it's fine, this time I didn't break anything important or poof anyone by accident!" Olive said, proud of herself.

"And you broke the door." Marine deadpanned.

Olive turned around and looked at the open door; whatever was holding it to the wall had been broken on the upper part, making it almost fall. She blinked.

"That was an accident. Dammit, door... ah, it doesn't matter. Next time, I'll definitely be able to beat my record and come here without breaking anything or anyone."

"Oh, man! Olive, you left in the middle of training with no explanation and you broke the door! For me!" Sean said smiling even more, with his eyes shining again. "You're amazing, Olive!"

"I know that, little buddy, but thanks anyway." A fist bump and Sean laughing was what followed, and Marine rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Ugh, anyway... Sean is ready to go, so let's not waste any more time." she said, going towards them. "And we should probably contact someone to fix this door..." she added in a whisper as they went through the hole.

***

There they were, in front of the door of Tourmaline's office. They were nervous like any other Gem would be if called there, but not for the same reasons; if they had simply been called to talk to her, they wouldn't be half as nervous as they were, but it involved _Sean_. And just that was enough to make them sweat.

"Ready?" Marine asked.

"Yeah! I'm always ready!" Sean replied, jumping.

"Let's do this." Olive agreed.

With her body shaking, Marine placed her hand on the detector by the door and pushed it, allowing all three of them to pass. As they entered the room, the first thing on their view was the long table some meters away from the door with chairs in front of it; Sean was the only one to actually see what was on the other sides (if there was anything), because unlike Olive and Marine, he actually didn't mind looking all around the place. Behind the table was a chair, with Tourmaline sitting there; her elbows were over the table, and her fingers were intertwined over her face. She didn't move, but another chair, which was facing away from them, turned towards them, and they caught the sight of Sol looking at them perplexed before she turned to Tourmaline.

"My Commander, they're here, they've finally arrived!" she shrieked, pointing at them as if they had committed the gravest offense possible. "Like I told you, I attempted to get them to come much earlier, but they kept refusing and creating excuses, so--"

"I can see they are here, Sol. I'm not blind, let alone stupid." Tourmaline spoke, her voice as cold as ice, and as effective as it too, as everyone in the room froze, except Sean, who continued to turn his head around.

"O-of course! I-I never meant to insinuate a-any of t-those, I... my Commander, y-you know I have the utmost r-respect for y-you, and I--" Sol stammered, her entire body shaking and her eyes wide, contrasting with everything Marine had ever seen her do; her desperate sentences barely made any sense anymore.

" _Enough_. When you make such a foolish mistake, the best you can do is shut your mouth and not repeat it again, not pester me further with your stupid apologies." the Commander retorted once again, her tone now louder. It sounded like a threat not just for Sol, but for everyone else in the room.

"Marine, your grip is too tight! You're hurting my hand!" Sean whimpered, and Marine released his hand instantly, shooting him an apologetic look.

"Please, take a seat." Tourmaline said, pointing to the unoccupied chairs with her hand with disinterest.

After bowing in respect, Marine and Olive sat down, and Olive placed Sean on his seat too. It didn't take long for him to discover that the chair was a swivel chair, and he started spinning around himself nonstop.

"Greetings, my Commander... we would have come even quicker, but Sean was asleep, and we couldn't wake him up abruptly. I hope you can understand..."

Tourmaline said no words, just stared at Sean while he spun on his chair. Marine and Olive glanced at each other before the former placed her own hand on Sean's, causing him to pause and look at her, while she spun him to face forwards.

"Sean, please... this is important, mind your manners." she whispered, before letting go of him.

"Alright, sorry!" he said in a failed attempt of a whisper, and grinned to Tourmaline, raising his hand to wave. "Hi Commander!"

At his overly enthusiastic response, Marine bit her lip and Olive facepalmed. Though, to their surprise, Tourmaline did nothing; she didn't reply, but she didn't punish him either, which was a good and confusing reaction. Could the no-nonsense Commander of ship 9Z5 be willing to tolerate Sean's behavior? Why?

"Doesn't matter you're late. What matters is that you're here." Tourmaline sighed, eyes closed.

"So, Commander," Olive coughed, then started. "Why did you call us and Sean here?"

"I wanted to see how he was developing." she replied, now looking at Sean, who jumped in surprise and glee hearing that.

"Oh, I'm doing great, thanks!" he chirped speaking like it was a normal conversation.

"Y... yes, that's right. Sean has been growing healthily... we followed all the advice that his father, Finn, told us. And he's satisfied with all of it." Marine said.

"And he's also a talented young boy... he learns fast, and we're on our way to awaken his Gem powers fully. It should take only a few more years before he masters it all." Olive also said.

Tourmaline got up from her chair all of a sudden, and Marine and Olive turned their chairs towards her without missing a beat; on her chair, Sol let out a tiny gasp and retreated until her body was buried deep on the chair's back, her hands gripping the chair's arms. Only Sean remained unfazed, and when Tourmaline stood behind him, he spun the chair to face her.

"Is there anything you would like to say?" the Commander asked.

"Oh, yeah, I think so!" Sean said. "Okay, so... my room is really nice and I like having Marine take care of me in there, and I also really enjoy going to train my magic powers with Olive! But I'd like to do other things too, like exploration. I know the ship is really big, I saw the map. So I want to see everything!" Sean spread his arms after the last sentence for more impact.

"I'll see what I can do." Tourmaline said after some seconds, and went back to her seat. "This will be all, I appreciate you coming here. Feel free to leave now."

"Y-yes, my Commander. Thank you."

Both Marine and Olive left their seats and helped Sean get down from his, and left the room quickly and silently. As soon as the door was closed, Marine let out a loud sigh and staggered backwards, slumping against the wall.

"Marine, are you okay?" Sean asked.

"Yes, I'm fine... I'm just glad this is all over and you're going to be alright, Sean." 

Olive chuckled and ruffled Sean's hair.

"Yeah, I'm also glad to be free from the creepy emotionless Commander and her haughty Pearl! Aren't we all, Sean?" 

"Why were you all so scared? She's not so bad! She even said she'd think about letting me explore the ship!"

"It's... complicated, kiddo. But anyway, it's over... and now, we can finally go to _our_ training! I prepared it all for you, but you were sleeping before!" Olive said, pretending to be offended to tease Sean.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! I want to train with you now, can we go? I love training!" he replied, jumping with excitement.

"Well, take care, you two... don't push yourselves, please." Marine said, then ruffled Sean's hair and started to leave.

"Yeah, we'll behave, we promise! Bye-bye, Marine!" Sean waved goodbye to her.

When Marine was gone, Sean turned back to Olive, and both of them shared mischievous grins.

"So, ready to see some swords, little buddy?" Olive asked.

"I'm always ready!" Sean laughed. This was going to be fun.


	2. 10 years old

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean trains with Olive.

"Feel like taking a break, little man?"

Sean, knelt down on the floor, reunited the strength to look up at Olive.

"Never! I never take breaks!" he said, between pants.

He struggled to get back up, only managing to get one of his feet standing. Olive let out a chuckle before taking hold of him by his chest and placing him on a bench on the corner of the room, before sitting down next to him.

"Okay, maybe I do like taking breaks," Sean admitted, blushing, and taking out a water bottle from the freezer by the bench. "Brrr, cold! It's full of ice!" 

Taking hold of the lid of the bottle, Sean tried to pull it, but it was simply closed too tight for him to even start rotating it.

"Uh, Olive? A little bit of help here, please?" he asked with a chuckle of embarrassment, handing her the bottle.

"Ha, sure, Sean!"

Olive took the bottle from his hands and also grabbed the lid, but just as soon as she did that, the bottle exploded from all the strength being put, and water flew everywhere, splashing the two of them. They looked at each other and blinked, before bursting into laughter.

"Nooo, my water!" he pouted, still giggling.

"There's plenty around now, all over you! Way easier to drink, don't you think so?"

"Nuh-uh, it's much harder now! I'll have to lick myself all over!"

A few minutes passed, and after drying himself, Sean stood on the seat and jumped out, landing on his feet, before turning back to Olive.

"I wanna go back to training now! Because I want to show you my special attack, the one I've been practicing for a long time!"

"Hm, I'm curious to see what this is... I've been training you since you were 4 years old, you're 10 now and I had never heard of any special attack before." Olive rose from the bench and approached the boy. "So, how's this going to work?"

"You stand right... there!" He pointed to a spot in front of him, a few meters distant. "And you stand still, and then I'll show you my move!"

"Yes, sir," she said, bowing, and walked to the place Sean had referenced. "Show me all you've got now!"

"Okay!"

Sean quickly ran back to the freezer, took another water bottle, and came back to where he was with an even bigger smile on his face.

"Here it goes! My super ultra mega special power!" With a little effort, Sean summoned a bubble around the bottle. He seemed prouder than ever as he watched the light blue pellicle on his hand. "Bubblingggg!"

Sean proceeded to throw it against Olive as hard as he could with one arm, almost falling to the ground in the process; Olive grabbed it on the air effortlessly and snickered.

"That's a pretty good bubble! But I know you're _way_ stronger than that!" Olive examined the bubble and then stared back at Sean. "Fancy a _bubble war_?"

"YES!" Sean screamed, starting to jump up and down. "I want a bubble war! Bubble war!"

"'Kay, then catch this!"

She launched the bubble back at him and he jumped on the air to grab it, this time really falling on his back, but getting up quickly. As soon as he noticed that Olive was already on the freezer getting as many bottles as she could, Sean gasped and dashed towards it too, and since he was not strong enough to hold many of them on his arms, he simply seized them and threw them over his shoulder, on his side. And when there were no longer any more bottles inside, the two ran back to their assigned positions and bubbled all the bottles.

"Ready to lose?" Olive asked with a smug look. 

"I never lose!"

"Sure, you don't! I'll count to three, and we start!"

Sean held two bubbles, one in each hand, tryin his best not to put too much force and pop them; though it was hard, since he could barely contain his excitement.

"One... two... three... START!"

Just as she finished speaking, both of them began to shoot bubbles at each other without stopping for a second. Sean wasn't even interested in dodging, because getting hit was part of the fun, and he simply tried to make as many bubbles land on Olive as possible. Soon, there were blue and green bubbles everywhere in the room, in both sides; Sean was throwing Olive's bubbles at her, Olive was throwing Sean's bubbles at him, and overall both of them were getting hit, laughing it off and retaliating.

After minutes like this, most of the bottles and bubbles had already exploded, and both of them were drenched. Wheezing, Sean looked around and counted the remaining bubbles.

"There are still 4 of your bubbles, and 6 of mine," he huffed. "I win! Yes!" Sean used the rest of his strength to do a small victory dance before letting his body fall and landing on his back over a pool of water, his arms spread, and his face flushed.

"Well, that's because I'm stronger, and when my bubbles hit something, they pop almost all the time! So _I_ win!" Olive argued back, getting up. 

"Ahh, no! It's not fair!" Sean said, sitting up. "Let's have a rematch, so we can decide who the winner is!"

"Sean!"

Both Sean and Olive turned to the door to see a worried-looking Marine standing there, with a light blue bubble containing a bottle of water floating above her hand. As her eyes traveled through the room, her expression only grew worse.

"Oh, Marine! You came to train with us? We were just going to--" Sean started before being interrupted.

"You're... soaking! Oh my stars, what happened here... Sean, are you alright?" Marine asked, kneeling next to him and holding his shoulders with her hands.

"Yeah, I'm great! Olive and I were having a bubble war with the water bottles, so we got wet!"

"Yeah, that's what happened, Marine. No need to get so worked up."

Marine got up, with her eyebrows furrowed and her teeth gritted. Glancing at Sean and Marine, she clenched her hands into fists, making Sean shiver; he had never seen her look that angry.

"What were you thinking?!" she yelled at Olive. "Sean could have gotten hurt! This... you can't just play like this!"

"What? C'mon, Marine... it's completely harmless. Sean can barely do anything asides from being stuck in his room all day, let him have some fun at least now..."

"Are you saying that Sean is not happy under my guardianship? At least he's safe!"

Watching the discussion get more heated for every second that passed, Sean got up and started slowly approaching the two of them.

"Uh, guys?..." he started, but his voice was drowned out by Marine and Olive's yelling.

"You say he's safe? More like _smothered_ , I'd say! He can barely do anything he wants... but he doesn't want to say it not to hurt your feelings!"

"That's not true, I've spent more time with Sean and I know him better than you! It seems that you're trying to project your own insecurities about your relationship with Sean on me!"

"Hey, Marine, Olive! I'm still here!" Sean again attempted to break out the discussion, waving his arms up in the air.

"No, you're the one creating excuses! Seriously, Marine, just... try to calm down a little! Not everything in the world is coming to bite you, or Sean! You're losing it!"

" _I'm_ losing it?! You're being... erratic! I'm just doing what I was _designed_ to do... take care of Sean. Keep him safe. If we take that into account, we wouldn't even need you to teach him how to fight... I can protect him!"

"Yeah, sure, you can! You've never fought before... it's not easy. That's why Sean needs to learn to be independent and fend for himself. He can't have you with him always!"

"GUYS, PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!" Sean screamed at them.

"Be _quiet_!" Marine and Olive yelled at him in response, finally turning their glares in his direction, before turning back to each other and opening their mouths again to speak.

But the next seconds were silent, save from the small gasps of the two Gems. Everyone's eyes widened in shock as they all processed what just had been directed to _Sean_ ; the only one who was not to be involved in all that mess. As Marine and Olive slowly turned back to face him, he looked at them with a mix between shock and hurt in his eyes, not daring make a sound after the outburst. Never had anyone been that rude to him before, much less Marine and Olive, the people he trusted the most.

"Oh my stars, Sean, I..." Marine started, seemingly in a loss of words, but being desperate to talk. "I'm so sorry... please forgive me..."

"Buddy, I... I didn't mean to snap at you like that. I really didn't, I'm sorry..." Olive said, trying to find any explanation, but it was obvious that the whole situation was unexcusable.

They knelt down in front of Sean. The boy looked away, at the floor; his mouth began to shake as he swallowed and sniffed for no reason, and the recently-formed tears in his eyes finally spilled, going down like waterfalls on his eyes, mixing with the rest of the water on his face. The Gems could only stare at the crying boy in front of them, unsure of what to do; they weren't prepared for this, this wasn't supposed to ever happen. They were supposed to _take care_ of Sean!

"We're sorry for being rude to you..." Marine whispered with regret in her voice.

"We won't yell at you ever again, it's a promise..." Olive said next, firmly.

"I'm not sad because of that..." Sean said, brushing the tears out of his eyes only to find more on their way. "I'm sad because... you were both being mean to each other for no reason... and that... made me sad..."

Their eyes widened in surprise and confusion.

"Marine, Olive was just trying to make me have fun, and I'm fine, see! I'm glad that you care about me, but I don't want you to worry in excess... because I care about you, too." he said, and Marine placed her hand over her mouth in realization, her own eyes shining with tears now. Sean then turned to Olive. "Olive, Marine may be a little overprotective, but that's because she cares about me... she doesn't want me to get hurt. Both of you love me, but in different ways, and that's okay! So seeing you fight... hurts me!"

"Sean, we're sorry... if we knew you felt like this, we wouldn't have done it." Olive said, as Marine was too busy trying to contain crying to speak.

"No, don't apologize to me. You only snapped at me because you were angry at each other... so apologize to each other." he asked, wiping away tears for good this time. "Please."

Then, Olive got up and extended her hand towards Marine, who looked at her in confusion.

"I understand what Sean means now. Marine, I'm sorry for how I treated you... I mean, I can't say I understand your overthinking of everything and paranoia, but we can help you. I'm sure we can reach an agreement." Olive said, smiling to her.

"I..." Marine took Olive's hand, getting up and starting to smile too. "I'm also sorry for overreacting. I should be thanking you for making Sean happy... from now on, I'll try to relax more. But... next time you decide to do those bubble wars... wear some safety equipment, okay?"

"That's fair, I guess," Olive admitted with an eye roll, but her smile made it clear that she didn't mind the idea.

"Great!" Sean chirped, jumping to hug the two. "Thank you. I love you, Marine, Olive. A lot!"

They hugged him back.

"We know, Sean... we love you too."

After some time, they stopped hugging each other, and Marine looked around at the room, keeping an uneasily nervous smile.

"Oh, well, um... you two certainly did make a huge mess, huh?" She sweatdropped. "But who's going to clean it all?"

Sean and Olive's smiles dropped as they realized the repercussions thair game had brought. Pools of water everywhere, some bubbles, rests of water bottles... Sean felt a drop of water fall on his head, and turned his head up to see that there was even water on the ceiling.

"If we did it... then I think we should clean it." Sean said gingerly, turning to Olive.

"I've never done this before, but... yeah. I guess we have no choice."

"I would love to help, but... I have important matters to attend to. Such as... tidying up Sean's bedroom!" Marine blurted out, with her eyes darting to every place in the room, as she let out an awkward laugh.

"But you already did that before I even came to train!" Sean intervened, confused.

Marine's eyes widened as a blush invaded her face.

"Oh, well, yes, but... I couldn't finish it! And even so, um... it's never a bad thing to clean your room." she replied after a few seconds, already running to the door. "Bye, you two!"

After Marine closed the door hurriedly, Sean and Olive turned to each other.

"Why did Marine look so nervous all of a sudden?" Sean asked.

"Probably just an excuse to be lazy and not to come and help us clean it up." Olive suggested with a shrug, beginning to pick up a fallen bottle.

It was too weird; Marine had always loved cleaning messes (but she still always went nuts whenever she saw one), so there was really no reason for her to refuse. But Sean chose not to argue and continued picking everything up. It took them long, but then finally, the room was just like it was before, and there were no signs that such a war had taken place there.

"Aww, man, I'm so tired! I'm so glad we're finally over!" Sean exclaimed, sitting down slumped against the wall.

Olive soon approached and sat down next to him, and he catched the towel she had just thrown towards him and started wping the sweat from his face.

"Now that everything's over and we're completely done here... we should get going." she announced after he was done, starting to stand up to leave.

"Wait, actually... I've been wanting to talk to you alone for some time, and, um..." Sean started, with the towel around his neck. "...I think now could be a good opportunity... if you can. I just didn't know how to bring this up and not sound random, but I don't want to keep avoiding it..."

"Sure, of course I can listen to you, Sean. You know you can tell me anything." Sean smiled as she said that, crawling to her lap and lying there.

"Okay, thanks! It's okay if you don't know it, because I've also asked Marine many times, but she didn't know. I asked my dad too, but I feel like there's much more to it." he said, toying with the towel he was wearing like a scarf. "Olive, did... did you know my mom?"

There was silence for some time, mostly because of Olive's surprise from that question, but she soon regained her composure.

"Oh... Azurite? I mean, I had heard of her... but I didn't personally know her, no. We were from two totally different areas, after all." she answered, and was sure she heard a small sigh from Sean after that.

"I see, that makes sense. Thanks anyway, Olive."

"But why do you want to know? Is there any reason in particular?"

"I just... wanted to know. More. I know a lot about my dad because he told me, but I wanted to know more about my mom too... and since I can't talk to her, I wanted to find someone who knew her enough to tell me about her..." Sean got up from her lap and stood up. "I can't find anyone, but... it's fine. I'll just keep looking. S-so, uh, we should go back!"

"Alright, if you say so..."

Both of them then left the room, and the walk back to Sean's room was unusually silent, but Olive just figured that he didn't feel like talking, and decided to leave him alone. As they got to the door, Sean thanked her and came in, to find Marine sitting on his bed with something on her hands.

"Marine?" he called out, and she looked at him and smiled.

"Ah, there you are, Sean... come here." she asked, gesturing for him to come closer.

Sean complied, approaching her and jumping on the bed to sit by her side. Now, looking closer, he noticed that the object she was holding was a book, but she was covering the cover with her hands.

"What book is that?" he asked, his curiosity showing through.

"Oh, it's... just a book that I found... when I was cleaning your room!" she said in the same nervous tone she was assuming earlier, looking away. "It's just like I said... cleaning your room is always a good thing!"

"Marine..." Sean stared at her with squinted eyes. "C'mon, I know you! What are you hiding? You were behaving just like that back in the training room! What is it?"

Marine let out a sigh, and looked back at him, not with a smile, but an unreadable expression.

"Alright. I was thinking about what you and Olive told me... about... you not having freedom to have fun, and having to stay locked here all the time." she admitted, a light blush covering her cheeks. "And then I... decided to talk to the Commanders to see if they'd let you leave your room to explore around the ship, even if just sometimes."

A loud gasp came from Sean, and he put his hands over his mouth, eyes shining with excitement.

"You really did that?! Wow! Thanks, Marine! And what did they say? Are they going to let me? Are they? Tell me they will, please!"

"It took a little bit of convicing, but... they said you can go out, as long as you're supervised by me or Olive."

As soon as she finished saying those words, Sean jumped up on the bed, screaming and laughing in joy, and jumped to the floor, landing on his knees and continuing to commemorate. Normally this would be something she'd tell him not to do, in fear of him getting hurt, but not right now. She didn't have the heart to scold him when he was so happy, not when she had been muffling that happiness for so long.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you, Marine, a lot!" he then said, starting to hug her tightly. "I can't wait to tell Olive all this! She's going to be so excited too, it'll be great! We'll do so many things together! I'll meet new people, I'll learn new things, I'll visit new places!"

"That's right, you will... I'm glad you're happy, Sean."

"But what about this book? What is it?"

Marine took her hands off the book, suddenly remembering it was there.

"Oh, this... Commander Apatite said she had been keeping it on her office for a long time, and had no use for it, so I could give it to you if you wanted. It's from Earth."

"Really?! So cool!" exclaimed Sean, taking the book and staring at its colorful cover. "I'll start reading it right now!"

"I see... I'll leave you there to read in peace, then." Marine said and got up, sitting down at a chair on the corner of the room.

Ocasionally she would turn around to check on Sean, and he would always be in the same position: lying down on the bed, his head against the wall and his legs crossed with the book against them. From his expression alone she could tell he was really focused.

Marine smiled to herself. Even if it wasn't what she wanted, if he was happy, then she was happy too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hoh a little bit of conflict there. but don't worry, it's in the next one that things will get REALLY dark.


	3. 12 years old: Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean has fun on his birthday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This first part is very light-hearted and funny.  
> Prepare yourself for the angst that will be the next ones...

Sean opened his eyes. Looking around with his mind blank, he understood what was happening: he had just woken up. Yawning, he looked up and Marine and Olive beamed at him, sitting on his bed.

"There you are, little buddy! I can't believe you made us wait so much just for you!" Olive said, laughing out loud. "I mean, you do this to me too, sometimes... but today, out of all days? Not gonna lie, I expected a bit more from you!"

The boy blinked, unsure of what Olive was referring to. Was she talking about training? It was the only thing he could think of, but it seemed like a special occasion. Even Marine, who didn't exactly approve of his training, seemed satisfied! Maybe it would be a kind of training involving the two of them, meant as a surprise?

"You're finally up, Sean!" Marine exclaimed, clasping her hands together, in a much cheerier tone than usual. "I was starting to think about waking you up... I don't really like doing that, but you were taking too long! Though that was probably an impression I had, since I wanted you to wake up already..."

So it was not just her tone, she was also being more talkative than usual. Sean sat up on his bed and rubbed his eyes; was there something he was forgetting? The only thing he could remember was the half of a sandwich he had hid on his clothes drawer some days ago to eat later, but surely it wasn't that; if Marine had discovered that, she would be perturbed, not happy.

"Uh, Marine, Olive? What happened?" he asked carefully, staring at her.

"I can't believe you forgot! Sean, we have a calendar right here showing the days on Earth!" Marine pointed to the calendar on the wall next to his bed, and Sean looked at it.

October 16th was circled in red. Sean spent a few seconds staring at it, unsure of what to make of that information, when the realization hit him like a brick to the face.

"Oh my gosh," he muttered, his eyes becoming wider and wider as he grabbed his blankets. "Today is... my birthday!"

"Exactly! But you took so long to realize that I think that the day has already passed!" Olive joked, and Sean jumped to hug her. "Happy birthday, buddy. I'm proud of you."

"Both of us are, Sean. You're twelve years old now... and it seemed like it was just yesterday that we first saw you..." Marine sniffed, turning away from them.

"Ah, come on, Marine... no weeping, please. This is supposed to be a happy moment!" Olive said with an eye roll.

"Yeah, that's right, Marine! Don't be sad... I may be 12 now, but most importantly, I'm still Sean!" the boy said, now hugging her.

She turned back and hugged him back, already crying uncontrollably.

"I-I'm sorry, it's just..." She sniffed again and wiped the tears away. "You're already so grown and different! And... when you grow more, you'll change even more... maybe you won't even need us anymore..."

"Don't worry about that, Marine! Even if I can take care of myself one day, I'll still care about you, and I'll want to be with you two! Nothing will ever change that!"

"Y-you're right... t-thank you, Sean... and I'm so sorry!" Marine exclaimed, wiping her entire soaked face. 

"Anyway, we got you a few gifts, Sean!" Olive announced, making Sean let go of Marine and squeal in joy again. "Let's go get them, Marine!"

They both went to one of the corners of the room, and took two packages he hadn’t even noticed were there before. Olive’s was long, giving him an idea of what was inside, and Marine’s was smaller and square-shaped. Coming back, his caretakers stared at him with grins on their faces, handing him the packages.

“Wow, those look awesome. Thank you, guys, I’m so happy!” Sean said, grabbing both packages, with both arms, tilting to the side with the weight of Olive’s, before putting the two over his bed.

He then proceeded to tear the two at the same time, and a real sword and many books revealed themselves in front of him. Gasping with delight, Sean stood up on his bed and jumped out towards Marine and Olive, hugging both at once.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you both so much!” he said, while they laughed.

“So, did you like the gifts ?” Olive asked, putting him back on his bed.

“Yeah, of course I did! Who wouldn’t like a sword and comic books on their birthday?” Sean said, and then eyes the sword again. “Though I don’t think I can use the sword…”

“Oh, that’s fine. I didn’t get it for you to master it immediately, you know… I’m giving it to you so that both of us can see how much you’ll grow.” the Agate explained with a proud smile. “Right now you may not be able to use it, but when you get older, you’ll be better than me, I’m sure.”

Sean blushed as he muttered an “awww”. He then grabbed one of the books.

“And it’s another one of the Captain Caake comics! I think I have the complete collection now!” he said.

“I mean… I don’t see what is the entertainment appeal in a human on the top of a building staring at the sky, but if that’s what you like, Sean, enjoy it.” Marine said, flustered.

“Oh, no, those are just the covers! The real story is much better!” Sean intervened, leafing through the book. “Captain Caake is a superhero with powers! He saves people, and sometimes, even Earth itself! He’s amazing!”

“Well, some people simply don’t understand action, Sean.” Olive teased sardonically, making Marine glare at her with squinted eyes. 

“Maybe I don’t… yet! You could spend some time with me, to explain it all better!” Marine proposed, putting her hand on Sean’s back.

“Or maybe you could come with me, Sean, so I can show you how your sword works!” Olive said after, also putting her hand on his back.

Confused, he eyed both of them, before putting his book down and getting up from his bed.

“I’d love to do both of these things, but I wanted to hang out with my dad first.”

Marine and Olive let out surprised “oh”s, looking down and blushing.

“But, after I’m done, I can come back to have fun with both of you at once! How does that sound?”

“It sounds really great, Sean… but take your time.” Marine said, giving him a comforting smile.

“Yeah, exactly, buddy. We’ll be right here, waiting for you, so don’t rush yourself.” Olive said, with a thumbs up sign.

“Thank you! Also… can I, maybe… go by myself?” he hesitantly asked, looking down at his feet, suddenly bashful. “I’m already 12 years old… I can take care of myself. I won’t get into trouble, I promise.”

Marine sighed, then turned to Olive, who gave her a nod.

“...Alright. You can go, Sean. But be careful!”

“Yaaay! I will, thanks, see you later!”

With that, Sean left the room through the door and closed it, barely able to keep his excitement in. It didn’t matter, he had to act mature and responsible, as an adult! His smile vanished, only to come back a second later; nobody was seeing him, anyway, he could enjoy every second of that sweet freedom!

He looked from side to side. Where was the Humans’ Area, again? He couldn’t quite remember… the other times he had gone there, he had merely followed Marine as she brought him through corridors and rooms. Sean had been way more focused on staring at the world outside his room and all the different people than trying to memorize the way.

It didn’t matter to him, though. He could simply ask someone… and explore the ship as he tried to find the way! Hopping to the right side, Sean quickly got to a corridor with some windows on the walls; approaching the glass, he took sight of a few Gems inside a room with some tables, all of them working. It was so interesting, that without even realizing, he had put his face and hands completely against the glass.

“Hey!” Sean called, punching the glass gently. “Can you guys hear me?”

None of them bothered to even glance in his direction, so he assumed they couldn’t. Sighing, Sean turned away and continued to walk where he was going. Shortly after, he reached a point where he could keep going forwards or go either left or right; he chose to go left, since that was the direction where the window he saw was located. And to his surprise, there was a door with a hand detector by its side.

Without hesitating, Sean jumped and slammed his hand into the detector, and rushed to push the door. As he entered the room, everyone present turned their gazes to him, and for a moment he blushed contemplated leaving, but soon after, the others went back to his duties as if he weren’t there. Sean wasn’t sure whether to feel insulted or calmer. Either way, he started walking around the room, getting perhaps a little too close to the Gems as they worked, to examine every part of it.

“Here you go!” he said, as he handed a piece to a Petalite reaching for it.

“...Thanks.” she replied reluctantly while glaring at him, before turning all her attention back to the weapon she was fixing.

“No problem! If you ever need anything, you can always count on Sean!” Sean chuckled, pointing at himself with his thumb. “Uh, so… I wanted to know something, could you help me?”

“Sorry, I have more important matters to attend to instead of helping you. Ask someone else.” the Petalite replied bluntly, not even looking at him.

“O-oh… I see, I understand! T-that’s okay, I just don’t want to bother… I’ll, um, be leaving if you don’t mind…”

Feeling his face burning with embarrassment, Sean turned around and walked away, out of the room. So, he would either have to find someone else to help him or find the way himself. Just as he was about to decide where to go, someone passed by him, flying.

For one second, he didn’t react, but then the realization came to him.

“Ametrine! Ametrine, waaaaait!” he screamed, running after her.

“Ugh. What is it,  _ Sean _ ?” she said, glaring at him and making sure to pronounce his name as weirdly as possible, like always. Just seeing his head tilt to the side in uncertainty made her replace her frown with a wicked smile.

“Oh, I… I wanted to go to the Humans’ Area! Can you take me there?”

“Depends. What’s in it for me?”

Sean hesitated. He hadn’t thought about that.

“Uh… my gratitude and friendship?” he said hesitantly. What had he just said?

“Something  _ useful _ .”

“I also have half of a sandwich to offer! I was keeping it just for emergencies like this!” Sean announced, happy to finally find a use to the sandwich.

“What’s a sandwich? Ugh, probably some of your weird human things. No, thanks, I’m not interested.” Ametrine sighed, and facepalmed, before sighing again and staring at him. “Look,  _ Sean _ , forget it. You don’t seem to have the mental capacity to offer anything remotely interesting, so I’ll let you off for now.”

“So I don’t have to pay you, then?”

“Of course you do, dimwit.” she replied, shooting him a sadistic smile. “But I’ll be the one to decide the payment. Meanwhile, just the satisfaction of knowing that I have you in my hands is pleasing enough.”

Ignoring the feeling that he had just sold his soul to the Devil, Sean beamed.

“Okay! So, now you take me there, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Come on. I won’t wait for you, so you better keep up with me. If you fall behind, that’s on you and I don’t care.” Ametrine said before going on a direction, steadily levitating one meter above the ground.

Sean followed her, and was quickly convinced that she was going as fast as possible just to force him to run. Of course, she was a specialist in humans, she knew that they could get tired… Sean frowned. If it was his mother there, it would be way different. But she wasn’t there anymore, because  _ he _ was. Feeling a stab of guilt on his chest, he shook his head and continued to thoughtlessly follow Ametrine.

“Here we are, squirt. Just come in, do whatever you want to do, and leave.” Ametrine announced when they arrived.

“I will, thanks, Ametrine!” Sean said, putting his hand on the detector and pushing the door.

After coming in, he made sure to close the door, and chuckled seeing all the trees and plants in front of him. That part was a real forest, and in the past, there had been times where he had gotten lost inside there. After all, it was a large and different place, much larger than the room he was used to. Sean started walking forwards, to get to the area of the beach, since that was where his father normally was.

Arriving there, Sean saw the usual sight: smiling humans scattered everywhere on the beach, bathing in the sea, talking to each other, and doing many other things. Right after Sean spotted his father sitting on the sand and staring at the water, he went over to him and sat by his side.

“Hi, dad!” he exclaimed, hugging him.

“Sean, you’re here! I’m so glad!” Finn replied, after they had stopped hugging.

“I am! Guess which day it is today… October 16th! Today is my birthday, I’m 12 years old now!”

“Wait, seriously?! Already?!” Finn shouted, shocked. “Wow… I’m sorry I didn’t know, kiddo. I just don’t have any way to keep track of the days here… happy birthday!”

“Thanks! And it’s fine, dad… all I wanted was just to spend time with you! I don’t care if you didn’t know, what matters is that now you do and we can enjoy this day together!”

Finn smiled and ruffled Sean’s hair, making the boy laugh.

“Alright. So, how does it feel to be 12 years old?” Finn asked.

“Great! Olive and Marine gave me a sword and comic books!” Sean said happily. “I can’t wait to start practicing with my new sword, and I can’t wait to read the comics!”

“A sword and comic books? Those are very… peculiar gifts, I’d say. But… things aren’t extreme to the point where you need to use a sword… are they?”

“No, not really.” Sean said, making Finn sigh in relief. “But it’s still cool to practice. I can already do many Gem things! Look!”

After standing up to let his father have a better look of him, Sean proceeded to stretch his arms up with shapeshifting, and then extended his tongue a lot. Then, he crouched down and took a small rock from the ground before summoning a bubble around it. Sitting back down, he threw the bubble at Finn, who caught it and threw it back.

“Those are really cool powers, kiddo. I’m proud of you,” said Finn with a smile, while they continued their game of throwing the bubble back and forth.

“Me too, and Olive and Marine are too! But I’m still learning… I’ll be even better in the future!” Sean held the bubble for some seconds, as he stared at the sky with his eyes shining. “Just like Captain Caake!”

“...Excuse me, who?”

“‘Who’?! Captain Caake is the best superhero that exists! He has many superpowers, and he uses them to protect innocents and fight against the bad guys! But, of course, he then turns the bad guys into good guys!” Sean explained, making exaggerated gestures. “Oh, also, he lives on Earth, and he appears on the comics that Marine gave me! You’ve never met him when you lived on Earth?”

“No, I haven’t. I haven’t met many heroes in my lifetime, kiddo.”

“Really? I have. Like Marine, Olive, you… you guys are all my heroes! And one day, I’ll become your hero too!” 

“I’m sure you will… thanks, kiddo.”

“No problem!” Sean threw the bubble back at Finn. “I… I was thinking a little about mom earlier today.”

“You were? Is there anything you’d like to know?”

“N-not really… you told me a lot about her. I know you cared a lot about her. And even though I never met her, I’m really grateful, too. Sometimes I wonder what she’d think of me if she met me.”

Finn got up, crouched down right in front of Sean and patted him on the head, giving him a compassionate smile.

“She’d be proud of you, just like all of us who know you are. Azurite loved you, Sean. She wouldn’t have done what she did for you if she didn’t. And I also love you, don’t forget that.”

“Thanks, dad.”

Finn embraced Sean into a hug. Sean believed in all of that, he was sure it was true. And he was glad for everything he had.

“So! Can we go and spend the rest of the day together now?” Sean asked, beaming, after the hug was over.

“Of course we can, kiddo! What do you want to do?” 

“Hmm… let’s see…” Sean put his hand on his chin and looked up. Then, suddenly, he got up, touched Finn’s shoulder and started running away. “Tag you’re it, now you have to catch me!”

Sean heard his father’s laughter behind him as he started running after him.

“Oh, then I’ll catch you right now!”

Sean laughed.

Everything was perfect.


	4. 12 years old: Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean makes a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so here the angst starts. sorry for taking this long to post!! the next chapter may take longer though--  
> ALSO READ THE END NOTES PLEASE.

Being able to explore around the ship was one of the best birthday gifts Sean had ever got. The place was giant, so there was always a new room to see, and there were even more people to meet, each one unique in their own way; he could never get bored of that. He’d spend his entire life having fun there!

And, like the day of his birthday hadn’t already been great enough, he had another surprise the next day. Marine and Olive took him to a room; his first impression was that it was a beautiful, cozy place to stay at, even if he had no idea what it actually was for. And, of course, he couldn’t hold back a gasp when he was told that it was his mother’s old room. With this revelation, he started seeing it differently, with other eyes; while it didn’t feel familiar, he certainly did feel comfortable there. But still, he preferred his own room.

Sean’s favorite part about Azurite’s room was the large portrait of her, next to the mirror on the wall. He had never ever seen her before, and he couldn’t remember a time where he tried imagining what she looked like, so seeing her for the first time was both surprising and natural in a weird, but tender way. She had blue skin that was so light it was almost white, and short and large fluffy blue hair, and Sean thought she was really, really beautiful. He also liked her compassionate gaze and warm smile, and often positioned himself in front of the mirror, so he could see his image right next to his mother.

It was also nice to stay there for a while, staring at his exposed gemstone and talking to it. Talking to himself. Talking to his mother. But when he spent too much time there, he would always start feeling tired, so it was best to leave. So, after putting his shirt back on and grabbing the backpack he had brought, he left the room and closed the door.

“Exploration, start!” he announced proudly just to himself, pointing forwards. Straight to a wall. “Um, I mean…” Sean pointed to his right. “Now, exploration, start!” 

He started walking in that direction, and instead of taking turns like he usually did, decided to maintain himself always going forwards; he wanted to see what was in the end of that corridor. It took him a few minutes, but Sean finally found himself somewhere; there was a hologram-like screen with a glowing “KEEP OUT” text across it. As much as Sean didn’t want to do anything bad and get in trouble for it, he was curious, so after looking around to make sure nobody was there, he touched the hologram, only to pull his finger back almost instantly with a yelp. It was more of surprise than pain, as the shock he had gotten wasn’t strong enough to harm him. Sean placed his finger on the forcefield again, and making sure to keep it there this time, was amazed to notice that his finger went through it easily, also taking out the entire area under it. Soon, lines rooting from his finger began to spread on his arms like veins, slowly, but steadily.

“Wow!” Sean gasped, moving his arm around. “Okay… let’s go through!”

After building up the courage to lunge into that forcefield, Sean started walking towards it, and the rest of his body was again shocked; even though it wasn’t too strong, feeling it in his entire body was pretty uncomfortable. He could only describe it as being bitten by small fish everywhere at once; it made him remember the time when Marine and Olive brought him a tiny fish from Earth and he liked putting his finger inside the aquarium for the animal to bite it. It didn’t hurt, but he imagined that feeling it in his entire body at once would. 

Anyway, he went through the field and a shiver ran up his body, but he felt normal after, so he figured everything was fine. In front of him was a door, and like all the doors in the ship, it had a hand detector by its side (“For better safety,” Marine had told him when he asked), so naturally, he pressed his palm against it, and the door opened by itself. Sean hesitated for a second; what was he really getting himself into? There was still time to turn around, go back, and forget about all that… but he didn’t want to. 

“Alright… here I go! I’m coming in!” he announced to nobody in particular, just to check if there was anyone else in there before coming in.

The room was cold, that was for sure. Not enough to make him shiver, but enough to make him feel the contrast between the inside and the outside. It was also very large, much more than his room, even though there was absolutely nothing there! Sean was about to leave with disappointment, when he noticed something in the corner of the room. Approaching, he made out what it was: a bubble, one containing a gemstone. Sean furrowed his eyebrows. Why would there be someone trapped in such a place?

That’s it, he didn’t care why. In Sean’s mind, nobody deserved to be deprived of liberty without an explanation, so without hesitating, he took the bubble on his hands and started squeezing it, slowly, but steadily. When the bubble suddenly burst, the gemstone fell on the ground, and before Sean could pick it up, it started floating in the air, glowing, and he found himself retreating a few steps. A fully white humanoid form appeared, then it spread like a shapeless mass of light, and then a balance between the two as colors faded back to it, and her body fell to the ground, kneeling and turning away from him.

“H-hey… are you okay?” Sean started, taking a step forwards cautiously, his hand outstretched.

The creature turned her face towards him, and Sean couldn’t help but release a gasp of shock; that was nothing like he had expected. The gem’s face was pure black with some orange parts, she had short and large, messy white hair sprouting out of her head; her mouth was shaped like a beak, and her large eyes were widened, as she darted her pupils desperately towards him. Her appearance was unusual for a Gem, she looked more like a monster, but that wasn’t even the weirdest part; what really startled Sean was the long sharp sting protruding from her rear.

Just after Sean opened his mouth to speak, the Gem broke out into ear-splitting screaming while clutching her in desperation and turning away from him. For a few seconds, Sean could only stand there, dumbfounded, unable to even think straight of how to act.

“W-wait! Calm down, I’m really sorry! What happened to you?!” Sean screamed, making sure to maintain his distance but still be close enough to calm the beast.

She turned her head towards him and let out a hiss, drool dripping from her mouth. Sean walked towards her, lifting his hands to his body to show he was unarmed, only for the Gem to spin around, hitting him across the face with the sting, which sent him flying to the side.

“Ow!” Sean exclaimed as he hit the wall, making his backpack fall out in the process. “Ow… hold on…”

He pressed his hand against his sore cheek, probably reddened by now. Inhaling in pain, Sean stared at the Gem, who was now sitting on the ground and still clutching her head and screaming. The boy grabbed his backpack and emptied it on the ground, letting out half of a sandwich he been hiding, paper and colored pencils. Because of the sound, the Gem instinctively turned to that direction, finally staying quiet, her eyes focused on the former contents of the backpack.

“You like those?” Sean smiled to her, once he himself had caught her attention. “Here, you can have it if you want!” Without making movements that were overly abrupt, the boy grabbed the sandwich from the ground and walked towards the Gem, handing it to her.

She only stared down at it in confusion before looking back up at him as if searching for aid. 

“Look, this is how you do it!” Sean bit into the sandwich while the Gem observed the scene in awe, then chewed it and swallowed. “Hmm, yummy! Here, try it yourself!”

The Gem took the sandwich from him, and after examining it more, threw it on her mouth and swallowed it whole. With a smile, she shot Sean a smile, making him sweatdrop but smile back.

“Looks like you enjoyed it… but I don’t have any more, I’m sorry.” he said, making her face go back into a frown. “But I can bring you more later! I’m Sean, by the way. How about you?”

She opened her mouth, only to squawk at him. Though it wasn’t nearly as loud or angry-sounding as before, so Sean could only assume she was trying to talk to him. But she didn’t look like she could.

“I’m really sorry… I can’t understand what you say. At all.” Sean confessed sadly. “But you can understand what I say, and that’s enough! Though you still need a name… hm… how about… Stingy! Since you have a sting!”

Sean stared at her with a bright smile, and even though she couldn’t talk, her expression made her look like she was asking him “seriously?”. She didn’t look really mad, so he assumed he could keep using the nickname, at least until they found a better form of communication. They could use the paper and pencils to write, but he wasn’t sure if she could write, and even if she did, Sean didn’t know how to read Gem Glyph and he was sure she didn’t know how to read English either.

“Oh, wait… I know how we can communicate!” he exclaimed after a while, then ran back to where his paper and pencils were, and put them on the ground next to Stingy. He then sat down on one side and she followed, sitting in front of him with the paper between them. “We can draw! Look!”

With the blue pencil, Sean drew a quick sketch of himself and turned the paper around. Stingy grabbed it and held it in front of her face.

“So, can you do this for me? Don’t worry about how it looks. My drawings are also really bad! For example, I can’t draw hands, so I always hide them and try to make it look natural! Which… most of the time makes it look unnatural.”

Stingy put the paper back on the ground, and grabbing the orange pencil, started adding something. As she handed Sean back the paper with a happy screech, he looked at it to see another figure standing next to him on the drawing.

“Oh! Is this you? Thanks for this! But you look so different. What happened?”

Surprised at his question, Stingy thought for a while with an uneasily worried expression, then took a spare paper and began to draw again. When Sean saw the finished project, he gasped, immediately recognizing what was in it.

“Is this… Earth?! And a spaceship going towards it?! Did you go to Earth, Stingy?” he asked, to which she nodded her head and squawked in approval. “Wow, that’s so cool! I always wanted to go there! What did you find in Earth?”

She continued to draw, and this time the figure showed herself surrounded by many furiously scribbled figures.

“Monsters? My dad never told me about monsters on Earth… so, what did you do?”

The next drawing showed Stingy running away until the monsters were out of view. That was fair, Sean thought, since he’d probably do the same. Next, it showed Stingy in front of another one of the creatures, with a worried expression on her face.

“Oh, no, one of them found you! What now?”

What he saw next shocked Sean. Instead of running away again, the drawing showed Stingy next to the creature, hugging it.

“Wait… did you know this one before? Is this your friend?” he asked. Stingy frantically nodded, squealing.

Following the hug, the next drawing was of a bright mass of light, with two visible gemstone over it. Again, Sean gasped.

“You… you two fused? So… those creatures were actually Gems?...” Sean was bewildered and morbidly curious about all that. “So, what next? What happened after you two fused? Stingy?”

Sean kept his eyes focused on the paper, but shot his head back up after water drops fell over it. Stingy was wearing the most pained expression he had ever seen anyone have, large tears dripping out of her eyes as she whimpered. Her whole body began to shake and she tightened her grip on the pencil before throwing it across the room; shutting her eyes, she seized her wid hair and pulled it as hard as she could.

“Stingy! I-I’m sorry, are you okay?!” he called, running next to her and placing his hand on her shoulder. Black tears joined in, and Sean reached out to wipe them off her face, but pulled it out instantly, feeling a burning sensation. “Ow!”

Too overwhelmed by the whole situation, Stingy turned away from him and buried her head on her knees, hugging her legs as she sobbed. Sean’s burned palm was the least of his worries; he knelt right behind Stingy and embraced her into a hug, pressing his head into her back. A few of the dark tears fell on his hands, burning, but he didn’t stir.

After a few minutes, her sobs turned into low whimpers, and after he felt her moving, Sean stopped hugging her. Stingy turned back towards him, looking down, having stopped crying.

“I’m sorry… are you okay to keep talking now? If you aren’t, take your time.”

Stingy gave him a nod. Sean sighed.

“Alright. So, tell me… what happened after you fused?”

Stingy pointed at herself with a shaking finger.

“I… I get it now! Your friend was… sick. Then you fused with her, and you got sick too…” Sean hugged her again, and surprised, Stingy kept her arms away. “Don’t worry… I’ll help you. And then we’ll find your friend… and we’ll help her too. You’ll be able to be together again.”

Slowly, she wrapped her arms around him too.

“I promise.”

Visiting Stingy became a daily habit for Sean after their first meeting. 

Every day he would ask Marine to prepare him a sandwich, and then he would pack lots of things, leave and finally come back after a long time. Sean knew that Marine was getting suspicious, and she probably also knew that he knew, but none of them ever talked about it. Maybe she felt like it’d be bad for her to interfere in his life like that.

It had been a week now, and he still had no plans to tell Marine and Olive about Stingy. They were two of his favorite people, alongside his father and now Stingy, and Sean couldn’t trust them more, but he still felt unsure about it. Even if he believed Stingy was just like any normal Gem, she didn’t look like it, and he didn’t want to risk them judging her by her appearance and causing a fight. And it was not like he was never going to tell them; in fact, Sean was trying to teach her how to speak and behave properly, and he planned to introduce her to them when he was done.

He couldn’t say they had done too much progress, if at all, but he wanted to try. He wanted to help her.

“Okay, now, say ‘Sean’! Seaaan…” Sean said, pointing to the paper where his name was written and staring at Stingy’s despondent expression. “C’mon, don’t give up before even starting… I know you can do it! Just say Sean!”

What came out of Stingy’s mouth was a distorted, hoarse version of “Sean”. He could only see the resemblance between that noise and his name because he had asked her to say it, but if it were any other case, he probably wouldn’t have recognized it. Not wanting to demotivate her, though, the boy forced a smile.

“You’re… doing great! Even if it doesn’t look like it, I believe in you. We just have to keep trying.” He reached into his bag and took a sandwich out. “Here, take a sandwich.”

But before he could hand it to her, a sound erupted from behind him and Sean turned around. He let out a gasp upon seeing Marine and Olive come in through the now-open door, who gasped in return.

“Marine?! Olive?! What are you guys doing in here?” he blurted out, getting up.

“That’s… that’s what  _ we _ were going to ask you!” Marine replied, eyes darting between Sean and Stingy. “Sean… please, you have to listen. Step away from this Gem.”

“What, why? She’s my friend!”

“Sean, listen to us, this is serious.” Olive said with an unusually rigid tone. “This… this is corruption.”

“Corruption?” Sean turned back to Stingy, who was behind him with an apprehensive expression, then turned back to his caretakers. “It doesn’t matter, she’s my friend! I’m trying to help her!”

“You can’t just help her, Sean! Just… listen to us for once!” Marine pleaded, gesturing frantically and looking like she was on the verge of tears. “You don’t know what you’re doing, Sean… you’ll get yourself hurt or worse! I never should have let you leave by yourself!”

“What are you talking about? I’m helping her get better, I’ve been doing that since we met! I believe she can get better! And she isn’t doing anything to me!”

“Olive, you know more about this than me. Explain to Sean why what he’s doing is a bad idea!” Marine said.

“Sean, look… I know you have good intentions. You just want to help someone in need, and that’s really brave and kind of you. But we can’t always--”

“But I can!” Sean interrupted.

“Let me finish,” Olive added, firmly enough to make him suppress his eagerness to explain himself. “You can’t fix corruption just like that. I know it, I’ve seen it. The best thing we can do for these Gems is keep them bubbled so they won’t suffer.”

Hearing that, Stingy squawked in fear, and Sean retreated to be closer to her, opening his arms.

“No, please! She’s my friend, don’t hurt her!” he begged with teary eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you this, I really am! Just don’t hurt her, let me help her!”

“Sean, I’m sorry, it has to be done. We’re not trying to be cruel… it’s the opposite. This is the only way we can truly help her.” Olive announced, pulling her sword out of her gem with a sigh. “Now, step out of the way.”

“No! Please, no, don’t do this… please, Marine, Olive, stop!”

“I can’t watch this…” Marine whispered and turned around, bringing her hand to her lips.

Olive approached them, still wielding her sword. Sean looked up at her, trying to muster as much courage in his expression as he could, and failing. She let out a small sigh, closed her eyes and gently pushed him away; and Stingy, seeing that in front of her, went berserk, and broke into screaming just like the first time Sean met her.

“S-Stingy, no! Calm down!” Sean shouted, running towards her only to be hit by her sting and sent to the floor.

“Sean!” Olive called, and distracted by what had just happened, almost got hit herself, but blocked the attack in time with her sword. “Marine, help Sean!”

Marine turned around, terror in her face as she noticed Sean on the floor. She went towards him and knelt, sitting him up.

“Sean… don’t worry, I’ll take you away from here! You’ll just get even more hurt otherwise!” she said, taking his hand and getting up.

“I can’t go!” Sean responded, pulling his hand back and stood. 

Right after he noticed the spot where Olive and Stingy were fighting, without even thinking, he sprinted on their direction; every movement felt automatic and every sound seemed distant, as though he were a mere spectator watching as all of that went off. Getting between the two, Sean opened his arms, and cried for them to stop. Stingy either didn’t hear or didn’t understand him, as she continued to advance, and in expectation of the attack, Sean put his open hands in front of his body, tilted his face away and closed his arms.

Nothing came after that. At least, he didn’t feel it.

Gradually reopening his eyes, he swiveled his head forwards. What he saw shocked him so much that he couldn’t even gasp: Sean found himself holding something, a bluish rod, he had no idea where it had come from, and Stingy was right in front of him, her chest pierced by the rod. It was all so fast, that he didn’t have time to recover from his stunned state, and her body dissipated into smoke, and her gem dropped to the ground.

The rod was still on his hands, but he didn’t want it to. He didn’t know where it had come from, it wasn’t his. Distant external sounds were all over him, but the only ones he could understand were the sounds of his heartbeats ringing in his ears. Alongside drops of sweat and the rod he was holding, Sean’s body fell to the floor, and his vision was engulfed in darkness.

Sean woke up feeling something touching his head, and after thinking for a few seconds, he realized he was being caressed. He was lying down somewhere, with something under his head; sitting up, he found himself on his bed, with Marine sitting by his side and Olive in a chair in front of him. Their expressions were somber, but relieved to see him awake.

“Guys?” he said.

“Hey, Sean… how are you feeling?” Marine asked, putting her hand on his back.

“Not good. I kinda feel like throwing up.” Sean admitted, rubbing his stomach. “And I’m so confused about what happened…”

“It seems that you finally managed to summon your weapon.” Olive replied, serious. “We checked, and discovered that your mother’s weapon was indeed, a rod.”

Sean didn’t know what to think of that. He had no idea what use was a rod.

“I’m sorry,” he choked out, lowering his head. “I’m so, so sorry… I never meant to hurt anyone. If I knew, I’d never have…”

“Shh, it’s alright. It really is, Sean.” Olive sat down next to him and put him on her lap. “We know you only had the best intentions… but you didn’t know what to do. Next time, just try telling us if something happens, okay?”

Sean nodded, lying back down on his bed.

He didn’t want there to be a next time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so next chapter will be the most intense and emotional one yet (and may be longer than the others!). We're diving headfirst into Azurite territory after so long, and this will be the debut of 2 new characters! To keep you hyped and still maintain the suspense, have a short synopsis:  
> "After an accidental meeting with a figure from his mother's past and a dark revelation, Sean begins to doubt the reality he has imagined for all his life. Troubled, and forced to make a hard choice and fight for it alone for the first time, Sean discovers more about his identity."


	5. 14 years old

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sean discovers about the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay... this is a HUGE chapter. It's full of action and emotion, and it was really fun to write it! I hope it's good :)  
> ALSO READ THE END NOTES PLEASE THEY ARE IMPORTANT.

When he was in his mother’s room, Sean felt as though it began to absorb him. Not in a bad way; sometimes he could “feel” her presence there, and it felt warm, the feeling that she was there with him. It was like some kind of trance, and the more he stayed there, the harder it was to leave. There were times where Sean had found himself thinking of it as his room before remembering he did have  _ his own _ room. He wasn’t Azurite, he didn’t own her room. Right?

Even if it wasn’t his, he liked it, maybe even more than his own room. Sean never felt lonely there, even though he was always by himself, and as strange as it could sound, he enjoyed talking to his gem (his mother) when he was there, despite knowing he would get an answer. That also meant he could be fully honest, with no fear of judgement; of course he always trusted Marine and Olive with everything, but talking to his gem (his mother) was also nice, especially since if there were any problems, nobody would have to worry.

“So, um,” Sean started, lying down on the floor with his his hands intertwined over his chest. His shirt was right by his side. “I’m 14 years old now! That’s great, right? Everything is really fun! I like exploring the ship, it’s really big. And there are lots of people too. Some are nice, some aren’t so much… but they’re all unique, and I like that.”

He sat up slightly, to get a better view of his gem, and smiled.

“I don’t have many friends, but I love all of them… including Marine, Olive, and my dad. I know you never met Marine and Olive, but trust me, they’re amazing! And, as you already know, so is dad!” Sean chuckled and sat on the ground fully. “I wonder if you were like me and liked to discover new things around this place. Talking about it, even though it’s been so long… I never took an in-depth look on your room.”

Hesitating for a second, Sean got up and looked around himself. There were a few shelves and cupboards around; he had never checked them indeed, he had never actually thought about them. Would it be violating his mother’s privacy? He wasn’t sure. But at that point he didn’t really care about right and wrong, just about the force driving him to go check it out.

Sean pulled a drawer’s handle. To his surprise, there was actually something inside: a gun! He had seen some Gems working on similar-looking gadgets on the general rooms, but he had never dared to touch one. But now he could. Looking at both sides to make sure nobody was there, Sean took the gun on his hands; it was way lighter than he had expected.

“Woah… cool!” he exclaimed, examining the gun. But turning it around, he saw something embedded inside it: a gemstone. An eerie feeling began to take over his body. “Why is a Gem here?”

Sean hated seeing Gems trapped. That had been the conclusion of his line of thought when he had freed Stingy, and that was what he was feeling now; Sean remembered fully well that Olive had asked him to  _ tell her and Marine when something like this happened _ , and he remembered fully well that he had  _ agreed _ , but the impulse of the moment was too much for him. Suddenly, Sean realized he had grabbed the gemstone and was on his way to pull it out of the gun. He gave in to the act.

With one final hard tug, Sean pulled out the gem, letting it fall on the ground alongside the weapon. The gem started floating, and soon after, a body of light formed around it, and fell to the floor; Sean stared at the person knelt on the floor turning away from him. She was wearing dark green clothing with lighter pointy shoulder pads, gloved hands on the ground, and bright green tall boots. Sean couldn’t see her face, but her short green hair was large and spiky.

“Hey! Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere?” he called out with concern in his voice, keeping his distance just in case.

The Gem turned her head around, panting. She was wearing some kind of pale green-tinted visor, and her gem was located where her left eye would be; as her only real eye darted towards Sean, and then his gem, it widened, and she gritted her teeth. Sean flinched, noticing her berserk anger.

“Azurite…” she growled, her entire body starting to shake.

“O-oh, no, you’re mistaken…” Sean started, putting his hands in front of his body. He had always wanted to meet someone else who knew about his mother, but not like  _ this _ . “It’s a really long story! So, if you’d just calm down so I could explain, we--”

“I won’t listen to your lies anymore! How  _ dare _ you?!” the Gem yelled, rising to her feet.

Sean backed out one step with a whimper, starting to feel sweat running down his hands. The Gem was so much taller than him, and as she took a few steps forward, hands clenched, she looked down to examine him up and down.

“And what is  _ this _ ?” she asked, with disgust on her voice. “What does this form mean? Why do you look like this?!”

“A-aha, you see… this is part of the long story I was going to tell you!” Sean said with a forced smile, chuckling. “L-let’s start with names! I’m Sean, and who are you?”

After he finished speaking, Sean regretted doing that. The Gem’s face twisted in fury and she lifted her fists, barely able to keep all that emotion in; Sean couldn’t even think of ways to calm her down, as he had no idea what had happened between her and his mother, and she didn’t seem like she was willing to chat with him about it.

“Who am I? After all you’ve done, you still have the nerve to come here just to disrespect me?!” she screamed, summoning a sword on one of her hands. “I don’t know if you just want to taunt me, or if you’re so used to committing horrible acts like that, that you don’t even remember… and honestly, I don’t care.”

“W-wait a minute! You have to listen to me!”

“Why should I? Everything that ever leaves your mouth is  _ lies _ !”

Before he could say anything else, the Gem sprinted at him, brandishing her sword. Quickly thinking, Sean jumped to the side, landing on his back, and as the Gem turned around to attack him again, he rolled and got up, starting to retreat.

“Please, just stop! I don’t know why you’re so mad, but I’m sure we can do something to make it better!” Sean said, ducking to avoid another attack.

“Nobody can, not even you! The harm’s already been done, and you should know that by now!” the Gem replied, her strikes becoming more and more frantic and desperate over time. “And I won’t listen to you again! I don’t care if you regret it, I don’t care if you’re sorry… I, Amazonite, will never believe you!”

“Amazonite?” Sean raised his head up, only to let it down quickly right after, dodging a sword attack on the last second. “Your name is Amazonite?”

“What else would it be?!” Amazonite groaned loudly, as she tried to pull her sword’s blade out of the wall. 

“Oh, that’s a nice name! Like I said, I’m Sean! My full name is Sean McCarthy, but you can just call me Sean! Do you need any help with your weapon over there?”

“Stop. Taunting. Me!”

Amazonite ripped her blade out of the wall, making many cracks and letting a part of it fall. Gripping the sword, she began to approach Sean once again; uneasy, the boy resisted the urge to summon his rod.

“Amazonite, please! I don’t want to fight. We don’t  _ have _ to fight. We can solve this peacefully… if you just come here and talk to me!” Sean spread his arms out wide, smiling honestly to her.

For one moment, she hesitated. That gave him hope. Then her expression transitioned into confusion, fear, and sadness all in one second, eventually settling with anger.

“That’s  _ exactly _ what you said back then!” Amazonite shouted at him. “If you’re going to fool me… you should at least try to come up with new tricks!”

What happened next was beyond Sean’s initial understanding. Amazonite swung her sword at him. And it didn’t hurt. It just felt. It felt so wrong. He looked down. There was blood starting to ooze out of the wound on his chest, right above his gem, missing it for just a few millimeters. And like all his strength had been drained from his body instantly, Sean lost his balance.

He fell to the ground.

* * *

Sean didn’t expect to wake up. When he started feeling something, a soft thing, against his body, he didn’t think much of it, just accepted it. In his reverie, not focusing on what was around him, Sean noticed the pain on his belly. Did death feel really that painful? That was unfair, he thought, as he tried to move himself among the darkness of his vision. He twitched his pinky finger with effort, unconsciously letting out a groan.

“...an?” a faint voice called out, seemingly close. Were they talking to him?

With all the effort he could muster, Sean opened his eyes as much as he could, which was only halfway through. It felt like his eyelids were glued together. His vision was blurry but he managed to see two figures moving around next to him. 

And then he remembered. The sword, the blood, his body falling down… he felt something rising up on his throat, but ultimately swallowed it down. Painfully.

“It’s alright,” a soft-spoken and singsong voice said. “You’re fine now. Everything will be alright soon.”

“We’re here with you, we know you’re strong enough to get through this.” a simultaneously strong and reassuring voice said next. “We believe in you.”

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed after that, when his vision began to go back to normal, and with it, the figures in front of him took clearer forms. It still took him a second to recognize them, and a wave of relief took over him as he did so; he was home.

“Hey,” Sean whispered, clutching his hand only to discover another one holding it.

“Finally you’re awake! Olive, he’s awake, Sean’s awake!” Marine screamed, her eyes reddish like she had been crying.

“Yeah, I see that! Sean, how are you holding up? How do you feel?” Olive replied, just as nervous as Marine, but trying to appear controlled.

“Groggy,” he said, trying to sit up, but falling back down with a shriek of pain.

“Sean! You’re still too impaired… don’t make any effort.” Marine told him.

“That’s right, buddy… it may sound weird, hearing me say something like this, but you can’t strain yourself.” Olive added. “If you need anything, just tell us and we’ll do it for you. At least until you make a full recovery.”

Sean rubbed his eyes. Another memory, bringing with it a realization, hit him hard, causing him to bring his hands down on the bed, widening his eyes.

“Wait! But what about Amazonite? W… what happened?” the boy blurted out with a sudden burst of energy.

“Amazonite?” Marine repeated, confused. “You mean… that Gem who was there with you? Ah, Sean… it’s alright now, you don’t need to worry about this anymore. It’s over.”

“No, it isn’t! Guys, she knows something… she knew my mom! I need to see her again, and discover what happened… she was hurt, too!”

The Gems in front of him gasped and glanced at each other. A few seconds of suffocating silence passed, and Sean was about to jump from his bed just to break it, when Olive said:

“Look, Sean… we can’t. We can’t let you put yourself in danger. Not  _ again _ .”

“We just don’t get it, Sean… why do you insist on being near people who hurt you? You’re repeating the same thing you did 2 years ago… you have to learn from your mistakes.” Marine mumbled, looking down and away from his gaze. “We’re meant to protect you… this kind of thing can’t happen. We thought you were able to roam around by yourself, but with these two incidents, we can only believe that was a mistake.”

“W… what do you mean?” Sean asked, trying to keep himself calm in vain. He could now feel his heart beating hard on his chest; stars, he could even  _ see _ his heartbeat on the monitor next to his bed, which he had just noticed while darting his eyes around.

“We had a talk, and we decided that from now on, you can’t leave your room unsupervised.” Olive dropped the bomb, making Sean let out a loud gasp.

“What? No! You… b-but everything’s fine! These were just… things I did, they have nothing to do with each other! We progressed so much, you can’t just stop me from leaving… we’re back to step one!” the hybrid protested, lifting his arms. “It’s not fair!”

“You getting hurt repeatedly is also not fair, Sean!” Marine shouted after turning back to him, startling both Sean and Olive with her outburst. She had never acted like this before. “Have you ever stopped to think how we feel when we see this? We’re not happy with this either, but we’re doing it so you can be safe, because we think about you! All I want, all I’ve ever wanted since I can remember, is to see you safe and happy, and if I can’t trust you to take care of yourself, I’ll assume this responsibility all by myself if I need to!”

Everyone remained silent after that. Marine because she had already said everything she had been keeping inside her, Olive out of sheer shock, and Sean because he felt like he had forgotten how to speak, and guilt. Marine hung her head again, facing away from the boy and put her hands next to it; occasionally, she’d let out a sniff or a whimper.

Sean couldn’t even process what had just happened; his mind went blank. Only after Marine got up and left wordlessly, her back hunched and her hands covering her face, he woke up from his trance.

“Am… am I bad?” he asked.

“No, you aren’t bad,” Olive responded, putting her hand over his. “You’re just  _ too good _ .”

“I didn’t mean to upset Marine.”

“I know you didn’t.”

Deep inside, Sean knew he was being selfish. And the worst part was that, even though he knew all this and it hurt him, and it had also hurt Marine and Olive, he still wanted to know more. Marine was right after all: why did he always chase after things that hurt him and the ones he loved? Doing that felt wrong, but so did doing nothing.

He didn’t know what to do. It was like everything he did hurt. Everything was mistakes. Caused by him. Everything was his fault.

“Here, take this.” Olive said, handing him an open bag of cookies. “You need to eat to recover your strength.”

“Thank you, Olive,” Sean said, and put a cookie inside his mouth. “Can… I ask some questions? I mean… only if you’re okay with it…”

“Ask me whatever you want. I’d like to ask you a couple things later, too.”

“Um, okay… first off… how did you save me in time? Was it just… a coincidence? Talking about it… who was it that saved me?” Sean asked, still eating.

“It seems that before you were injured, you were fighting, correct? And there’s no such thing as a completely silent fight, especially with weapons.” she replied. “The noise alarmed a few Gems nearby and they came to check, and brought you to this room to be treated. Marine and I were informed of what happened shortly after you arrived.”

“Oh… I have to go and thank them later. They probably saved my life.” He swallowed, a shiver running up his spine. “And… what about Amazonite? What happened to her… where is she right now?”

“Bubbled, so she won’t cause trouble anymore.” Olive said bluntly. “Now it’s my turn to ask you. Where did she come from? The reports informed that she wasn’t wearing the Elementals’ uniform… is she an escaped prisoner or something?”

Sean rubbed his temples, trying to focus to see if there was any detail about her he hadn’t caught before.

“No, she isn’t… in mom’s room, I found a weapon with a gem in it. So I took it out… she reformed, and when she saw my gem, she looked so angry…” Sean looked down and brought his fingers close to his gem, but hesitated and put his hands back over the bed. “And she kept calling me Azurite. I think… no, I’m sure, something happened between her and my mom.”

“Maybe… but as you said that was between her and  _ your mom _ . That’s not your responsibility to solve, especially if she can’t distinguish the two of you.”

Perhaps she was right. Perhaps it wasn’t his responsibility, nor his business. But he still wanted to know; whether because of childish curiosity or just an obsession, Sean felt the need to know about his mother’s life and relation to that Gem. He felt like it was driving him insane.

“Dammit… I think I’ll have to leave now.” Olive mumbled after a while. “But there’s no way I can leave you here like this…”

“It’s fine… I-I’m okay now, really. I feel much better. I’ll just… go do something fun, like sleeping!” Sean intervened, forcing a smile. “You don’t need to worry about me! I won’t do anything stupid. I won’t get hurt. Not this time.”

Olive stared at him with worry, before sighing and getting up.

“Right, then… I’ll get going now. If you need anything, just scream… someone’s got to hear you.” she said before waving to him and leaving the room.

Leaving Sean alone with his thoughts. There was no way he could sleep with his thoughts burdening him like that. Not while he kept telling himself that, if he didn’t have so many medical thingies attached to him, he’d already be heading to the bubble room to put his life into risk once again just to pleasure his whims and discover more about his mother. And deep inside, he was glad he couldn’t.

After a while, stuck in his own mind, Sean was woken by the low sound of the door opening. He was about to open his mouth and reassure Olive that he was safe, this time he hadn’t gotten himself into trouble and she could go do her things in peace, but he stopped after he realized who was standing there, looking as baffled as him.

“Marine?” Sean asked and rubbed his eyes to make sure they weren’t fooling him.

“Yes…” she replied awkwardly, rubbing the back of her hand and looking away. Sean was almost sure he saw a light blush on her cheeks.

“Do you… want to talk?”

“I think so.”

She approached and sat on his bed, closer to his feet and his chest. Never had they been distant like that before. They stayed like that in silence for a few seconds before opening their mouths at the same time:

“I’m sorry--” Marine and Sean spoke at the same time before stopping, glancing at each other and looking back down.

“You first.” Marine offered.

“I’m sorry for making you worried.” Sean started. “I never cared much, because I thought that whatever I got myself into was just my problem. I never really stopped to think about how you and Olive felt about all this… and I’m really sorry for being selfish.”

“Thank you, Sean… I’m sorry too. Nothing gave me the right to speak to you like that… I should never have done that. I regret it so much, but I can’t take it back now… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. That’s the way you feel, isn’t it? It’s your right to express it. Don’t be sorry for believing in that.” Sean reassured her. “And you were right anyways, I think. I’m sorry for risking my life and making you and Olive worried… it’s okay if you can’t forgive me after this.”

“Of course I forgive you!” Marine exclaimed, not even able to fathom being distant from him. “I care for you, Sean. And I want you to know this.”

‘ _ But love and trust are different things. _ ’ Sean thought, biting his inferior lip.

“So, I really don’t want to stay… like this. I don’t want to fight with you ever again.” she completed, moving to sit closer to him and taking hold with his hand gently. “Let’s move on from this, alright?”

“Yeah,” Sean agreed, nodding his head. “Of course.”

Sean knew what he needed in that moment.

“I’m sleepy. Can you… lie down and sleep with me?” he asked.

She was taken aback by that question, but smiled, a bit awkwardly. Sean noticed she was overjoyed, though.

“O-oh! That’s so unprecedented… I-I mean, it’s…!” she started, chuckling to herself. “I’d love to. If that’d make you feel better, I’ll gladly stay here with you!”

She lied down next to him, careful not to push or hurt him in any way.

“So,” she started, after some seconds of rearranging her position. “How exactly does this… ‘sleeping’ thing work?”

“Okay! First you lie down… you’ve already done that. Then, you close your eyes, and think about good things! Or nothing… you decide that. But if you’re relaxed, you’ll fall asleep without even noticing after a while.”

“Okay. I’ll try.”

Silence. Sean couldn’t sleep, because just like he himself had said, you need to be  _ relaxed _ .

“Hey, Sean, are you asleep yet?” Marine whispered to him.

“Not yet.” he whispered back, shifting his position slightly.

More silence. Sean was unsuccessfully trying to keep his mind blank; just like it was after Marine snapped at him. He missed that now.

“Am I doing this right? Why haven’t I fallen asleep yet…” Sean heard Marine murmuring to herself.

“Marine, you’re never going to fall asleep if you keep talking,” he said, sounding way ruder than he intended. “I-I mean, um--”

“Y-you’re right!” she interrupted him loudly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to… it doesn’t excuse it, but I want to make sure I’m doing this right for you. But now I get what I have to do! I’ll stay quiet.”

Sean sighed quietly to himself. Another mistake, another thing to keep filling his mind and keeping him from achieving peace… he couldn’t take it off his head anymore. It was just like how it had been with Stingy; he desperately wanted to help, but he had no idea how and he felt alone. But at least, with Stingy, Sean actually interacted with her, and she did not hate him. But this Gem, Amazonite, had tried to kill him.

He did not hold it against her. Even if he wanted to, he would not have been able to. All he focused on was helping her,  _ understanding _ . Half of it might have been for his own selfish reasons, but what Sean had thought earlier was true: he did not like seeing Gems trapped. Being kept trapped in his own room for most of his life had taken a toll on him, even if it didn’t affect him that much.

After finishing his reflection, Sean made a decision. He turned to the other side, to see Marine with her eyes closed, peacefully sleeping. He made sure to spend some good minutes staring at her, the one who had taken care of him for his entire life alongside Olive; he would never be able to express all the gratitude he had for them. And that might be the last time he was looking at her.

No, he couldn’t think as negatively as that. Sean knew he was going to succeed. He knew he could save Amazonite.

Ripping off all the medical stuff connected to his body, Sean grabbed his shirt, which was over a table in the corner,  _ waiting for him _ . Putting it on, he walked to the door and left after taking a last glance at Marine.

* * *

There he was, in the bubble room. Even if it was what Sean wanted, what he felt was right, the boy was still weary about all that. Sean looked up, at all the bubbles floating. He always thought bubbles were beautiful, but when they contained gemstones inside, they had a certain feel to them that made his chest tight, but that still didn’t change their beauty. Morbid was the word Marine had used, he remembered now. Bubbled Gems were morbidly beautiful.

He still remembered the appearance of Amazonite’s gem. He just had to find it and hope it was the right Amazonite; thankfully for him there weren’t many gems there, since they had done evaluation tests recently and many of the gems who were previously there occupied the places in the jail cells, leaving only these ones. It didn’t take him long to find Amazonite, and he took the stepladder on the corner and grabbed her bubble.

“Gotcha,” he murmured, stepping down to the ground again. “Now I’ll take you to Mom’s room…”

The corridors were eerily vacant, but Sean paid no mind to that. That was good, nobody would have to see him do that. He came inside his mother’s room and everything was there just like he had left it, with the addition of a crack on the wall caused by Amazonite’s attack, and smears of blood on the ground after he had gotten hit.

“Please… don’t attack me again,” Sean asked, before he popped the bubble and retreated a few steps.

He didn’t plan on using the door to escape, even if she did. He had already decided he was only going to leave that room after explaining everything to Amazonite, and nothing would change his mind. No matter what happened. Just like before, Amazonite’s gem floated on the air, glowing, and Sean’s heart raced, his hands shaking. Then Amazonite reformed. She punched the air, only to erratically inspect the area after realizing there was no opponent, then fixated her eyes (full of rage, just like before) on Sean.

“Azurite!” she growled, clenching her fists. “You’re back! And where’s everyone… what’s happening here?” Her eyes widened, like she had realized everything. “You bubbled me? For how long? Why are you always imprisoning me?!”

“No! I didn’t bubble you. I was the one who freed you, again!” Sean exclaimed, trying in vain to appear calmer than he was. “I just want to talk to you!”

“Talk to me?” Amazonite gave him a mocking snort. “What else do we have to talk about? Everything that needed to be said was already said. You put an end to it.”

“No, that’s not true. We have lots of things to talk about… you and  _ me _ . Sean.” Sean said, and dared to step closer to her. “I don’t know what happened between you and Azurite… and that’s why I’m here. I want to understand.”

Amazonite eyes him up and down for a long time, before she turned around and covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders started to shake, and then her whole body, as she let out sounds similar to whimpers; for a moment, Sean thought she was crying, and was about to touch her, but she turned around suddenly, laughing.

It wasn’t a happy laugh. It was a desperate, scared, distressed, exasperated laugh, anything but happy.

“Are you serious,” she blurted out between chuckles. “You want to drive me insane, don’t you? Is… is lying all you ever do? Just… why can’t you leave me alone? Shatter me, for all I care, I just can’t deal with you and your lies anymore.”

“N-no! I’m not Azurite, I’m not my Mom! I swear! I don’t want to fight you, I want to be your friend!”

“Who are you, anyway?!  _ What _ are you?!” she snapped.

“I’m Sean McCarthy… but you can call me just Sean.” he said, smiling gently. “If you calm down and listen, I can explain everything to you.”

Hesitantly, Amazonite nodded, and Sean started to speak. He told her about the humans living inside the Humans’ Area, Azurite’s role on the ship taking care of them, how she had met his father, and finally, how they had made Sean together, and how Azurite had given up her physical form for him. Amazonite heard everything with a baffled expression.

“So you claim to be a… hybrid.” she summarized, with a dubious tone that bordered mockery, looking at him weirdly. “You have Azurite’s gemstone, but you’re not actually her.”

“Yeah, that’s it! And I have a predominantly human body.” Sean added, with a calm smile. “I don’t have my Mom’s appearance, personality or memories. I don’t know much about her… just what my Dad told me.”

“Then, let me ask  _ you _ a question,  _ Sean _ ,” The way she pronounced his name almost dissipated all of his confidence, alongside the overly long pause. “Why did you free me?”

“W-well, isn’t it obvious ? You were… trapped in there. I wanted to help you…”

“Why? Why did you want to help me?”

Sean opened his mouth, but no sound left it. He didn’t know what to say; to him kindness had been such a natural instinct that he never stopped to think  _ why _ he was doing it.

“Because… I don’t like seeing others get hurt. You were being hurt, and you didn’t deserve it, so since I could, I helped you.” he answered, hoping that reply would please her. “Why  _ wouldn’t _ I help you?”

“That sounds like  _ pity _ to me,” Amazonite scoffed, turning around to the side. 

“It’s not pity. It’s kindness.” 

“Kindness…” Amazonite repeated as if the word were a stranger to her, then turned back to face him with an unreadable expression. “If you really aren’t Azurite, and you’re telling me the truth… then you really are different from her.” She let out an emotionless laugh.

“What? No! My Mom was also really kind, I know! She loved my Dad, and she loved me!”

“If you never met her, how can you know what she was like?!”

“Because my Dad knew her more than anyone, and he told me everything about her!” 

“I don’t care what ‘My Dad’ thinks! I’m talking about what  _ I _ know about her!”

The room went silent for a while. Amazonite grunted and let out a sigh, starting to pace around in circles while biting the tip of her finger in anxiety. Sean looked down.

“What do you know about my Mom?” he finally asked. Even if he was scared to know the answer, he felt like he  _ needed to _ . It was the same driving force that had told him to go and see Amazonite.

“Everything one would need to know about her! That she was a traitor, and a liar!” Amazonite retorted.

“D-don’t say that! Just tell me… what happened between the two of you? Why do you hate her so much?”

“Very well,  _ Sean _ ,” she said, now with a calmness that did not belong to her, still pronouncing his name weirdly. “I listened to your story, at least what you claim is your story… now you’ll listen to mine.”

“I-I will.”

Amazonite sighed, and started telling her story:

“Thousands of years ago, I was captured by the Elementals. Because that’s what you do. But as you’ve probably noticed, I’m not the kind to sit and mope in a jail, waiting to see if they pity me… I escaped. Naturally, the guards tried to capture me… but I fought for my freedom. I realized that if they kept coming at me, I’d eventually be overwhelmed and I’d end up losing, so I needed a strategy to escape from the ship. I ended up grabbing some of their workers hostage…”

“You did what?!” Sean blurted out.

“Don’t interrupt me!” she snarled, before regaining her composure. “Anyway, I was threatening them… either they let me leave, or their workers would pay the price. I only did it for survival, so I don’t regret it… and they were the real ones in the wrong there. They were the ones who really wouldn’t hesitate to ruin my life for their own selfish purposes. And then… Azurite came. She said nobody had to be hurt, that I could just go home and be safe and everything would be alright. She told me the kindest words anyone had ever told me back then…”

She paused, biting her lip. Sean blinked at her expectantly.

“I agreed… because I didn’t really want to hurt anyone, I just wanted to leave. But then she showed me who she really was… she stabbed me on the back.  _ Literally _ ,” She sighed. “And she kept me as a power source for that weapon. After thousands of years… you found me.”

Sean slowly brought his hands to his mouth and his stomach; his chest felt tight and his throat felt full, everything felt weird. His mind was racing, and despite the rather cold feeling in the air, Sean found his hands wet with sweat.

“No, it can’t be…” he said, shaking. “My Mom… there’s no way she could have done something like that… I always imagined her as… kind, and loving, and…”

“Well, I’m sorry, but it’s true, whether you believe it or not.” Amazonite put bluntly. “And I assume the rest of this group wants to do the same thing to me again… so I need to find a way to escape.”

“I-I’ll help you.” Sean said, making her look at him with a surprised eye. This wasn’t about him; he had to focus on helping  _ her _ now. “There are some escape ships somewhere here… you can take one and leave!”

“Why… would you be helping me?” she asked. “There has to be a hidden intention somewhere. Either you’re lying to me again, or you want something in return… and I don’t want to be deceived again, so you better make everything clear right now… or I’ll make you pay.”

“There’s no secrets. I just want to help…” Sean assured her. “Even if it wasn’t me who did it… I want to make up for you. The way my Mom treated you was unfair and wrong, and someone needs to help you… so it might as well be me, her son.”

Again, Amazonite inspected him up and down, before nodding.

“Very well. So you take full responsibility for anything that happens from now on. Lead the way.”

Not even waiting for him, she headed towards the door and pushed it, only for nothing to happen. Before she decided to do something crazy, Sean ran there and put his hand on the detector, opening the door himself. Amazonite walked in front and Sean left after her, closing the door.

“Okay, so, um… I don’t actually know where the room with the ships is,” Sean admitted, looking down.

“What? Were you lying to me?!”

“No! I’m still going to help you, I promise! But I’ll need to get a map to take you there. There’s one in my room, I think… there are some screens around the ship with maps that can show you routes, but I don’t know how to use them.”

“Alright… let’s go, then.”

Sean reached to hold her hand, but quickly, Amazonite slapped it away; embarrassed, Sean started walking to where his room was. He was beginning to wonder why there was nobody around on the corridors, when suddenly, a voice echoed from behind him, making him and Amazonite freeze instantly.

“Hey, Azurite!” shouted the high-pitched voice, getting closer.

Sean turned around to see a small Gem, a petalite, coming towards him hurriedly. Without missing a beat, he looked up at Amazonite, who was glaring at him.

“Quick, shapeshift the Elementals’ outfit onto yourself! Anything gray will suffice!” he whispered, and sighing, she complied.

When the petalite got near them, Sean forced a smile; for the first seconds, she simply examined the two of them. Sean felt sweat dripping from his hands.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, clearly suspicious. “According to the reports I received, this Amazonite looks dangerously similar to the one who attacked you. Same gem placement and all.”

“W-well, but it o-obviously isn’t her!” Sean laughed, grabbing Amazonite’s hand all of a sudden. “Why would I be with someone who hurt me? A-and also, l-look, she has our outfit!”

“Yes… I guess. But I was informed you would be resting while recovering from the attack. Why are you here?”

He stopped dead, simply staring at the petalite with a dumb smile plastered on his face, trying to come up with a decent excuse. Then he felt Amazonite’s hand trying to slowly go up; once he realized her plan, he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.

“O-oh, I’m way better now! M-Marine and Olive s-said it’d be good for me to, um… w-walk around, and e-exercise! So they let me show t-the new m-member around! R-right?!” He tightened his grip in Amazonite’s hand.

“Yes… that’s right.” Amazonite replied emotionlessly, glaring at the petalite. 

Sean just watched the two, glancing between them as they communicated with no words, just gazes, and wondered if he should say something.

“Oh, in this case, alright. Just be careful, won’t you? Everyone’s scared after what happened, and the corridors are unusually empty. See you later.”

With that, the petalite left, making Sean let out a relieved sigh. But as soon as she was out of sight, Amazonite went back to her normal appearance and seized him by the shirt, lifting him to her height and making him let out a yelp of shock.

“Listen here,  _ you _ … Sean, Azurite, whoever you are,” she started with a grim tone, as he struggled. “I’m trying my best to trust you, but I’m starting to think I’m making a mistake.”

“No, I swear! They’re just like you were before! They think I’m Azurite!” 

With a growl, Amazonite released him, letting him fall to the ground.

“Just bring me to where this map is, already. I’m tired.”

Their way back to the room was silent. Sean simply pressed his hand against the detector and pushed the door, but the sight in front of him paralyzed his body.

“Sean?!” Marine and Olive screamed at the top of their (non-existing) lungs. Then their gazes shifted to Amazonite and turned into anger, as Olive summoned her sword.

“Guys, stop! I can explain!”

Sean turned to Amazonite, who was about to summon her own sword; no, there was no way he would be able to explain it to Marine and Olive so fast. And even if he did, they would never support what he was doing. So, in less than a second, Sean grabbed Amazonite’s hand and ran, pulling her along.

“Where are we going?!” she yelled.

“I don’t know!” Sean replied, turning his head to see Marine and Olive running in their direction. “We’ve got to find a place to hide, or something!”

They ran so much that Sean barely had time to breath; he wasn’t even sure how he was able to keep standing, with all the unexpected turns, all while he prayed they wouldn’t reach a dead end. After a series of forks and turns, he noticed Olive and Marine were distant from them, and an idea sprouted in his mind as he realized his mother’s room was just up ahead, and he pulled Amazonite inside.

“What are we doing here? They saw us coming inside, surely, and here, we have nowhere to run!” Amazonite protested.

Sean almost collapsed, putting his hands on his knees and trying to stabilize his breathing as fast as possible.

“Listen,” he puffed, extending his trembling hand towards her. “You’ll have to fuse with me! We don’t have much time, and it’s the only way!”

“W… what?” She stared at him baffled. “Fuse… with you?”

“Y-yeah! I may be half-human, but I can fuse… don’t worry!”

“I… I can’t.” Amazonite declared, looking away.

“Why not? If we fuse, Olive and Marine may realize how important this is!”

“I think I’ve been very selfish to you… while all you’ve done is help me.” she explained. “So after all this, as much as I hate to admit… I can’t trouble you anymore, Sean.” She then pointed to the gem on her eye. “Would you really want to have this gem on you?”

He just smiled gently at her.

“The real question here is…” Sean lifted his shirt, exposing his own gem. “Would  _ you _ want to have  _ this gem _ on you? It’s no better…”

Only then, she grinned and approached him.

“I accept.”

* * *

Olive kicked the door open after Marine put her hand on the detector, and both of them jumped inside the room. But both of them were shocked and terrified to see not the two figures of Sean and Amazonite inside, and instead, a sole figure that was neither of them. As it turned its body towards them, Marine gasped and brought her palms to her mouth, and Olive dropped her sword.

The figure stared at the two of them with two pairs of green eyes behind a green-tinted visor, one of them covered by a gemstone. Their shoulder-length dark cyan hair was wavy and rather messy, with bangs covering their forehead; their skin was of a lighter mix of blue and green. Their outfit was composed of a short sleeveless green tank top, leaving most of their chest exposed, including the gem on their navel, also baggy gray pants with cyan shoes.

“You would protect Sean with your life, both of you, yet you hold a serious grudge against Amazonite.” they spoke, with a calm and soft voice that matched their emotionless expression. “So what are you going to do to me?”

“You… what are you…” Marine stammered, about to start tearing up.

“I’m Turquoise.” the fusion replied, seemingly not offended by the wording of the question.

“No… no, you can’t. You can’t do this! Let Sean go! I don’t care what you do, just don’t hurt Sean, he has nothing to do with any of this!” Marine cried, covering her face. “If you do anything to Sean, I swear I’ll…!”

“Oh, you are mistaken. Sean isn’t being forced to do this… in fact, he was the one to suggest fusing.” Turquoise said, unfazed by the ruckus. Perhaps they were ignorant of the disturbance they had caused. Or perhaps, they didn’t care.

“In this case… unfuse right now, Sean! We are  _ not _ joking!” she turned to Olive abruptly, with a begging gaze. “Tell it, Olive… make it stop! Save Sean from all this! Bring him back!”

Olive’s hand twitched, but she didn’t dare use her sword. She simply stared at Turquoise with a pained guilt on her eyes, before walking towards them and embracing their body, which despite being about Marine’s height, was still short compared to her. Turquoise didn’t move. They didn’t react. 

“What are you doing?!” Marine hissed with desperation and fear. “What about Sean?!”

“Sean isn’t the helpless little child you think he is.” Olive replied, getting out of the hug and turning back to Marine. “He is old enough to make his choices, and he also has to be mature enough to face the consequences. If his resolve is strong enough to the point where he would help, forgive and even fuse with a Gem who tried to kill him, I’ll support his decision. And you should, too.”

Hearing that, Marine started walking towards the two of them, one step at a time, until she was in front of Turquoise. The fusion stared at her eyes, unblinking, no emotion present there. Marine put her hands on their shoulders.

“What is it that you want?” she asked.

“All Sean and Amazonite want is for her to get out of this ship safely. I’m only here to make sure this happens.”

Marine turned to Olive, who was still looking at Turquoise.

“Then that’s what we’ll do. Come on, Turquoise, I’ll take you to the emergency room.”

“Wait,” Marine pleaded, making the two others look at her. “When this is all over… you’ll go back into Sean, won’t you? S-Sean… is going to stay with us, isn’t he?”

“Yes. I have no desire to stay here. As soon as both Amazonite and Sean are safe, I’ll unfuse.”

“B-but you are safe… you can unfuse right now… w-we won’t do anything. We’ll help…”

“Marine… Turquoise already told us when they’ll unfuse. They probably don’t trust us right now, and they have no reason to… let’s just do this.” Olive said, and opened the door. 

There they were, the three of them walking together among the corridors, with Olive on front, Turquoise in the middle and Marine walking a bit slower than the two of them, staying behind. Even though they were silent, they were having three different monologues inside their heads.

Olive was simply treating Sean as an equal. She respected him, and even if she did want to protect him, she knew he had to be respected as someone who was  _ capable _ . Even if she did not agree with his choices, Olive would support his right to make them, because after all, he would only be able to learn and grow if he made mistakes and dealt with the consequences himself. 

Turquoise didn’t think about many different things, but they were thinking a lot about the one thing they needed to. They had been brought up for a sole reason, only to make sure their components (one of them, at least, but the other one also had the same objective in a way) were kept safe and sound. Olive and Marine, despite feeling familiar, were not truly trustworthy and could still compromise their mission.

Marine’s mind was racing. All she wanted to do was protect Sean, shield him from harm, give him the peaceful life he deserved. Was that wrong? Why did he refuse to accept it? She had never thought it would be so hard when she was taking care of Sean years before, with all his constant demonstrations of care; when had things changed, and why?

They arrived at the room. It was wide and open, showing the space outside, with many small spaceships if compared to the ones they were in on the edge.

“Here we are,” Olive announced. 

“I see. I’ll go inside one of the ships and unfuse there.” Turquoise said.

“T… Turquoise, wait.” Marine asked. “I know you’re not Sean, but… do you mind if I…”

“You can talk to Sean if you’d like. I will listen, and soon, he’ll know everything.”

Marine and Olive stepped forwards, closer to Turquoise.

“Sean… I love and care about you more than anything. Even if I don’t agree with what you do, even if I worry this much… nothing will change what I feel. I want to see you happy and safe.” Marine said, barely able to contain her tears.

“Sean, I can’t even believe you got to this point. I still remember the day I saw you for the first time… you could barely lift a simple weapon. And now look at you… you’re strong, and you’re brave enough to fight for what you believe, not caring what anyone else says. I couldn’t be prouder.” Olive said right after that.

The two of Sean’s caretakers wrapped their arms around the fusion in front of them.

“We love you.” they said at the same time.

Unexpectedly, Turquoise hugged them back, and like that, the three stood for a few minutes. When they stopped, they were surprised to see tears rolling down on Turquoise’s face, and for the first time since they had appeared, they actually had a smile on their faces.

“I’m sorry for this, it’s just…” Turquoise wiped the tears away, but kept the smile. “It makes me glad to see that your love for Sean has no barriers. Even if I’m also half of someone who you may despise… I’m also half of Sean, and this is all that matters to you.”

Looking at them for a last second, Turquoise turned around and came inside one of the spaceships and closed their eyes. Soon after, Sean and Amazonite appeared.

“We… we did it!” Sean exclaimed, with a smile.

“We did… you kept your promise, like you said you would. Thank you for that.” Amazonite said. “But Sean… don’t you want to come with me? What is someone as good as you even doing with the Elementals?”

“I appreciate the offer, but no, thanks. I’ll stay here because Marine, Olive and my Dad are here… and my home is wherever they are. But how about you? Where are you going?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll look around for a place… somewhere I can call home, just like you do.”

“Okay, good luck! I hope we can meet again!”

“Maybe… but meanwhile, farewell, Sean.”

“Bye-bye!”

With that, Sean got out of the spaceship, and waved at it as it went off into the distance. As he turned back to Marine and Olive, he was immediately embraced in a hug by both of them.

“We’re so glad you’re okay!” Marine sobbed.

“I’m sorry I made you worried…” 

“What matters is that you’re okay. And we meant everything we said back then, you know.”

“We do. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re grounded!” Marine said, making Sean protest with an “aww”.

But, even so, the moment felt nice. Even if he had other things on his head, Sean decided to enjoy it. He was happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so since this is the last chapter, I want to let out some things.  
> The symbolism of Sean and Azurite's weapon, the rod, is pretty simple: a rod can be used for both defensive and offensive purposes. This symbolizes them being able to do both good and bad things: Azurite's relationship with Finn was a good thing, but what she did to Amazonite wasn't. You may think it doesn't apply to Sean since he's so kind, but in this chapter, he was selfish in a way, even if what he did was ultimately a good thing. But this other "side" of Sean will be given more depth in the future, hopefully.  
> Also, here in this chapter, I put the flaws of the main characters (Sean, Marine and Olive) on the spotlight. In fact, I realized Sean's main flaw while I was writing this: his exageratted altruism ends up hurting himself and even making him hurt others, even if he has good intentions; it even seems like he has little regard for his life and is reckless when coming to risks. Knowing this, Marine is overprotective and wants to "keep him in a bubble"; her intentions are also good, but harmful to Sean's development. Olive is just the opposite: she believes that by treating Sean as an equal and letting him do whatever he wants to face the consequences himself, she is respecting him, mostly because she doesn't understand he is a child and doesn't exactly know what he wants, so he should be stopped and guided when he attempts to bite more than he can chew.  
> That was all I wanted to talk about, I think. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it :)


End file.
